Woking Athletics Club’s under-17 squad won silver in the 4x100 metres relay at the National Relay Championships at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

Participation in the championships was by invitation by England Athletics only, with the top 16 clubs in the country being invited based upon recorded times from earlier in the season.

The day was not without drama. Just 20 minutes before check-in time for the heats, the club’s lead runner – Dylan Lewis – pulled his hamstring during his warm-up and had to withdraw. This was not the first time he had suffered an injury before a big event.

Given the high profile of the championships, Woking had a fifth man on standby, and Sahil Vassanjee rose to the challenge despite having very little time to warm-up.

The team format had to be amended and the new lead off athlete, Liam Trinidad, ran a blistering first leg before executing a slick handover to Kris Eccleston. He ran a superb second leg before handing over to last-minute substitute Vassanjee, whose performance, in the circumstances, was excellent.

Vassanjee exchanged the baton with anchor man Adam Cohen, who raced down the home straight to bring the team home in second place and qualify for the final. Their time – 43.15 seconds – was a new club record.

The same format was used for the final and while the baton changing was not quite as slick as it was in the heats, Woking Athletics Club took the silver medal and reset the club record of two hours earlier with a new time of 43.13 seconds.

Woking Athletics Club took some notable scalps with this performance – including Blackheath & Bromley, Birchfield Harriers and Herne Hill.

Meanwhile, in Manchester, Woking’s Tyler Panton competed as a member of the England team in the annual Manchester International.

Bringing down the curtain on what has been an amazingly-successful season, Panton was part of the England team which won the 4x100 metres in 40.40 seconds.

Panton also recorded a split of 47.89 seconds in the 4x400 metres as part of the England B relay team, where he fought back from receiving the baton in fifth to finish third behind England A and Scotland.

At the World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Woking had a number of athletes representing Great Britain. In the men’s 35 age group Ian Horlock fought his way through the heat of the 400 metre hurdles, where he finished eighth in the final. He also reached the semi-finals of the 400 metres.

In the men’s 40 age group 400 metre hurdles David Awde produced his best run of the season to come away with a bronze medal, recording a time of 56.67 seconds, just ahead of club-mate Kaspars Kazemaks – who was representing Latvia. Their positions were reversed in the 110 metre hurdles with Kazemaks finishing third and Awde fourth.

There was a further medal won by Steve Beak, who was part of the M60 4x100 metres team that finished in second place. Earlier in the championships he had finished sixth in the 200 metres.

In the W45 shot put Eleanor Gatrell finished just outside the medals in fourth place. Also representing Greta Britain were Roy Chambers in the M35 long jump, javelin and 200 metres and Michael Omakobia in the M40 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres.