Herne Hill Harriers Steve Knight defied a broken rib to help the club win a medal at the South of England Veteran Road Relay Championship.
Knight who has been suffering with a cracked rib and torn intercostal muscles for a few weeks volunteered to compete after original team member Jim Zaple got caught in a traffic jam on his way to Aldershot.
Tony Harran finished 11th on the first leg in 20 mins 13 secs and then national champion Micky Boyle swept through the field to clock the days fastest time of 18 mins 40 secs for the 3.314-mile course.
This left Knight 50 seconds ahead of the field and hoping he could beat the pain to help Harriers stay in medal contention.
Knight clocked 22 mins 08 secs to hold on to third spot, which Rob Jacobs maintained on the last leg with a time of 20 mins 49 secs.
The fastest athlete in the Harriers B team was Paul Oates (23:24), while Peter Dipple clocked 24:22.
Zaple eventually got to run on the first leg of the senior race and clocked 21 mins 15 secs.
Fastest runner for the senior team was Lyndon McKevitt (19:59), followed by Vic Maug-han (20:23) and Simon Stevens (20:30).
Herne Hill Harriers also had several teams in the young athletes competitions, in which Stacy Holverson and Mesach Roberts excelled.
The womens squad of Poly Rogers-Dixon (13:56), Fiona Zeyala (16:13), Louise Mortiss (17:05) and Liz Souness (16:54) ran well to finish in the first 25 teams.
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