Woodford Green with Essex Ladies’ Under-20 women won the final Metropolitan League cross country race at Merchant Taylor’s School to finish third overall in the standings.

The season’s climax in Moor Park demonstrated the strength in depth of both squads, with the women performing particularly well to trump the league’s top two finishers on the day.

Chances of usurping league leaders Serpentine and second-placed Shaftesbury in the table were slim yet this didn’t stop the team cruising to victory in the final round of racing.

Led by Emily Moss, Sarah Bird finished second, 20 seconds behind Shaftesbury’s individual champion Rachel Felton and recorded Woodford women’s highest placing all season in the process.

Wildcard Linzi Snow leapt up to fourth place, while Sidnie Sales (seventh), Moss (13th), Dani Nimmock (15th) and Lauren Stewart (16th) ensured victory on the day and a stronger hold on third position in the league overall.

Delighted race day captain Alex Wardle said: “We set our ambition high at the start of the season by wanting to win this league.

“We didn’t achieve it this time but coming third against real quality teams like Serpentine and Shaftesbury puts our achievement into perspective.

“To bookend the season with record numbers of Woodettes is a real achievement and I’m so proud of the girls for coming good and winning our last match. We know that we have it in us to win this and I am determined that we will.”

Woodford men’s A team went into their final race unable to overcome Highgate’s lead at the top of the league standings and used the event to field a number of regular B team members.

Martyn Cryer was the stand-out performer with a 12th-placed finish and was followed chronologically by Bertie Powell, Tom Beedell, Angus Holford, Harold Wyber, Darren Southcott, Louis Clark, Gareth Cavell, Tony Russell, Tim Ballard, Matt Molloy and Tony Pamphilon.

Their scoring 12 out of the first 87 competitors saw them finish third behind Highgate and Serpentine.

Team manager Terry McCarthy said: “This makes it 12 years in a row that we’ve not finished outside the top two (eight titles and four runner-up spots). This has been a legendary Met League generation.”

On the indoor front, a number of Woodford athletes competed in the UK Championships and European Indoor Championship Trials in Sheffield last weekend.

Commonwealth Champion Tosin Oke won the triple jump with 16.87m, Sarah Claxton’s second place in the 60m hurdles saw her claim the UK title and Shana Cox finished second in the 400m.

Zainab Ceesay (fifth) and Hannah Frankson (eighth) did well in the women’s triple jump, while long jumper Kitty Eleyae came seventh.

Alex Cornwell and Tom Phillips reached the 1500m final but Matt McLaughlin fell in the same race to miss out on joining his team-mates.

Earlier in the week, Paul Scanlan and Mike Baker ran season bests in the 400m in Birmingham and Sam Watts produced three good times over 60m, 200m and a 4x400m relay leg in Texas, USA.