Swindon Harriers’ senior men team are chasing a fifth successive title but without reigning individual champion Simon Byrne, who is injured.

They were pushed hard by Oxford City before emerging as winners by just seven points, scoring 152 to 159 with Abingdon in third.

“We were not at our strongest but we just snuck a win,” said Byrne.

“It was a bit of a surprise as there seemed to be so many Oxford vests at the front but we did enough.”

Byrne continued his comeback from injury with an impressive fifth place just behind clubmate Harry Woods in third while newcomer Daniel Giles was 10th on his league debut.

Harry Edwards (12th), Max Harrison-Tosatto (23rd), Andrew Fulford (42nd) and Christian Paul (57th) completed the scoring.

The senior women also started positively on their return to Division One finishing a fine fifth overall. Chloe Powell had a great run to finish third with Emma Hines in equal fourth.

Linda Charlesworth (45th) and Lucy Scruton (67th), who was also making her debut for the club, completed the scoring.

In the young athletes’ races there were three individual victories for Ella Spencer (U17s), Charissa Griffiths-Clack (U13s) and Finley Byrne (U15s).

In addition, Loki Fisher was runner-up in the U11 boys with Daniel Rose third, while there were also third places for Emily Blackstock (U17s) and Molly McMeeking (U11s).

There were also impressive runs for James Mayneord, Doug Kirby, Freya McMeeking, Pippa Wall and Iris Dodgson, who all made the top six of their respective age groups while a further nine athletes finished in the top ten.

In the team events the Harriers came out on top with first places for both the incredibly strong under 15 boys and girls – with the U15 boys B team placing third as well.

The U11 boys and girls also did the double, a terrific achievement with the 13 girls collecting the other first place and backed up by their B team placing third overall.

The U17 women and under 13 boys came second and there was a third place for the under 17 men.

“It was a glorious day,” said Michael Beard, the new team manager for the young athletes.

The team also had two representatives who took part in the New York City Marathon, as Ben Cole finished 95th and Courtenay Chessell registered a 2,039 place finish out of a total 55,527 participants.