STROUD and District AC U17 road relay team were in gold winning form at the Midland Counties Road Relays in Sutton Coldfield.

Despite having two of the silver medal team members from 2017 unavailable, they still came away with the gold medal.

Coach Chris Brown said: “ It was quite a blow to lose two out of three of the team, who are at the top of this age group, but we do have strength-in-depth and I decided to give the younger girls an opportunity to show what they could do.

"It is quite a boost to the other girls to have Annie Testar, the indoor and outdoor English 800m champion, in the team. We felt the top teams would put their strongest runner on the first two legs in an attempt to get well clear before handing over to their final runners. So we had to stay close enough to the lead teams to mount a challenge on the last leg and that is exactly what happened. "Annie gave us a good start, finishing third on the first leg - 31seconds behind the leaders Birchfield and Mansfield, it was imperative that Grace Tavner, running on her own, well clear of the fourth-place team, did not allow the gap to grow very much and she delivered in difficult circumstances - finishing in third - 41seconds behind Birchfield and Mansfield.

"Lydia Attwell chased hard from the start and passed Mansfield by halfway and was closing fast on Birchfield to take he victory by a 12 second margin.”

Meanwhile, Stroud U17s will be at full-strength with three teams at the national road relay championships on October 6, which will be held on the same course.

Elsewhere, Stroud U17s B team had their best ever finishing position of 10th. Led by Amy Clark, who finished ninth on leg one.

Results: Stroud A team, Annie Testar 14min 37s, Grace Tavner 15min 22s, Lydia (Bob) Attwell 15min 00s, Stroud B team, Amy Clark 15min 39s, Anaya Powis 16min 59s, Isobel Parnaby 16min 57s.