Herne Hill Harriers finished 13th out of 62 teams in the South of England six-stage Road Relay Championships on Sunday to reach next month’s national championships in Birmingham.

The Harriers’ six-man team got off to a strong start thanks to Chris Busaileh, the club’s fastest man of the day, who closed the first leg in an excellent 8th place.

He was followed by Johnny Henderson, Sarwar Khan, Ben Paviour and Tim Elsey, while anchor man Dave Mulvee was their second fastest runner on the day, overtaking five runners to finish 13th.

The B team of Simon Coombes, Tony Harran, Keith Newton, Simon Phillips, Sam Knight and John Kettle came 40th.

Harriers’ U15 boys came ninth out of 45 teams, the U13 girls were 16th out of 62 teams, the U13 boys were also 16th, the U17 girls 24th and the U15 girls 36th.

Herne Hill took men’s and women’s team prizes at the Croydon Switchback five-mile cross country race organised by Striders of Croydon.

Mike Cummings, Vic Maughn and Rajdave Singh made up the scoring trio for the men, while Suzie Richards, Helen Sharp and Rebecca Barrow closed in for the women.

Richards claimed a medal as the first women to finish while Maughn took the first veteran prize.

Herne Hill Harriers athletes were in action abroad also with Brian Wilder making his England international debut in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, placing an excellent 27th place in 2.27.23.

Club veteran Dave Peters finished in 7th place in the prestigious Fifth Avenue Mile meeting in New York. Debbie Jackson shaved off 6mins from her personal best in the Berlin Marathon with a time of 3.24 while Simon Bestal finished in 3 hours 36mins.