A trio from St Albans Athletics Club and St Albans Striders just missed out on a place in the top-10 of a nationwide championship.

Oliver Davis, Callum Walsh and Jed Lumb finished 11th in the U15 English Cross Country Association’s National Relay Championships at Mansfield on Saturday.

The event saw more than a thousand teams, spread over a number of age-groups from U13 up, tackle a hilly course through woods and grassland.

In the U15 group, the threesome had to battle 73 other teams, including a second squad from the club.

One of the more impressive individual performances came the U15 girls’ category.

Keira Stern moved-up 20 places in her leg, storming through in a time of 7.43.

Ben Clark improved on his 2014 time by 15 seconds in the U17 men’s race while Juliet Merelie ran the fastest leg in the women’s group in her first cross-country competition for the club.

Megan Steer produced an excellent run on the first leg of the senior women’s race finishing 3km in 10.37.

The team which was completed by Lucy Waterlow and Deborah Steer finished 35th.

A spokeswoman for the club said: “We all ran our best on the day and we can all take good points and areas for improvement. Well done all.”