STEPH Twell’s sixth place led Great Britain’s senior women to the silver medals at the European Cross Country Championships in Chia, Sardinia on Sunday.

Fellow Aldershot Farnham & District runner Andy Vernon, with fifth place, was third counter for GB in the senior men’s team which took the gold medals.

Ellis Cross was 15th in the U23 men’s race, helping GB to the bronze medals.

Overall, Great Britain finished second at the championships, just missing out on topping the medal table for a 14th year in a row.

Gold and silver for Turkey in men’s senior race – the final event – put them ahead of Britain who had Callum Hawkins taking the individual bronze.

GB won team gold in the women’s U20 and U23 races and bronze in the men’s U20s and U23s, but it was not enough to beat Turkey who finished with three golds, two silvers and one bronze to Britain’s three golds, one silver and six bronzes.

Turkey’s Kenya-born Yasemin Can, the 10,000m and 5,000m European champion, won the women’s senior race ahead of compatriot Meryem Akda.

Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal of Norway was third, with Steph Twell the highest-placed Briton in sixth place, Gemma Steel 12th and Katrina Wootton 16th.

Kenya-born Turks also dominated the men’s senior race, with Aras Kaya taking gold and Polat Kemboi Arikan silver ahead of Callum Hawkins, while GB team captain Andrew Butchart came fourth and Andy Vernon fifth.

AFD provided Surrey’s first finisher for their victory in the U20 women’s event at the South of England Inter Counties Championships on Saturday.

Niamh Brown was third, two places ahead of Gabi Eglen who was the county’s second counter, and another club colleague, Nancy Scott, closed the scoring quartet in fourteenth.

The meeting at Oxford also included the area championships for veterans. Tad Dicker took the bronze medal in the race for O50 men’s race, while Austin Soane claimed silver in the O60s section.