Bristol & West AC's Tom Russell staged an impressive one-man show to win the Severn AC cross country relays in Gloucester.

Looking for a hard work-out, the junior Great Britain international opted out of the conventional team approach and decided to run all four stages of the 1.9-mile course around Plock Court.

Remarkably, Russell then proceeded to beat the other teams, embarrassing the top junior squads from his own club Bristol & West and also a strong Stroud line-up.

"Technically I didn't count, but I did actually cross the finish line first," said Russell. "Basically, I was looking to do a hard-tempo run on Saturday, and rather than run on my own I asked if I could run all four stages of the relay.

"It helped me as it is a very fast surface and was a lovely day, and I think it probably helped the other teams as they were very close the whole way."

Bristol & West team manager Mike Down was happy to allow Russell his wish and felt it benefited the other leading runners.

"There was never more than a few metres between Tom and our junior team the whole way," said Down. "Tom just got clear in the final mile and won the race in a very impressive time of 37mins 15secs. It was a tremendous effort by him."

The race title went to the Bristol & West junior squad of Rich Peters, Nathan Young, Matt Peters and Sean Hazel as they finished two seconds behind Russell.

But Russell didn't claim the fastest time of the day as that went to Stroud's talented teenager Tom Curr with 9mins 07secs for the fast 1.9-mile circuit.

The quartet of Imogen Ainsworth, who ran the fastest women's time of the day, Sian Davies, Heidi Moulder-North and Emily Merrick completed a Bristol & West double by winning the women's race.

Aiming for a top-10 finish, Bristol & West AC runner Phil Wylie had to settle for a career-best 13th place in the World Duathlon Championships, held in America.

Ben Morley, of Great Western Runners, shaved a second off his personal best as he clocked 33mins 16secs to finish 13th from a field of almost 3000 runners in the Swansea Bay 10k.

"We used this as a training run and this is very early days for Ben, who has only been running a very short time and is still on very low mileage," said coach Mike Hockett.

In the last outdoor competition of the summer and despite a chilly, dark night at Yate's Outdoor Sports Centre, Bristol & West AC pole vaulter Tony Hillier cleared a personal best of 4.71m.

The jump lifts Hillier to eighth in the UK Under-20 rankings and is the best by a West junior this summer.

Next best was club-mate Luke Bailey on 3.60m with veteran Steve West on 3.35m. England Athletics champion Lucy Bryan cleared 3.00m.

Westbury Harriers' Debbie Marsden finished as top woman in the Mells Scenic 7-mile multi-terrain race organised by Frome Running Club.

Marsden was ninth overall, with club-mates John Terry and Gregg Ward sixth and seventh respectively in a race won by Bath-based Tom Fisher.

Bristol & West AC's Jon Goodland finished 24th overall and second veteran over-50 (37mins 25secs) of 524 finishers in the Cirencester park 10k road race. Great Western Runners' Aileen Brown was sixth (40:49) in the women's race.

Hogweed Trotters' Dave Wintle completed the New Forest Marathon in 3hrs 26mins and is looking to go much faster at the Loch Ness Marathon next week.

The Bridge Inn Winter 5k series gets under way tonight from the pub of the same name in Shortwood, east Bristol (7.30pm), with entries taken on the night. To enter the five-race series costs £19 for club runners or races can be entered individually at £5 a time. For further information see the race website at www.bristolandwestac.org.uk

Also this week, Thursday sees the start of the Burnham Winter 5k series.

The race starts from Burnham-on-Sea swimming pool. For further details, see the race website at www.bospool.com