Sandra Francis tops British W65 long jump rankings with new club record!

Sandra Francis, from Striders of Croydon, produced an excellent performance in the Southern Counties Veterans Indoor Championships at Lee Valley. She won the W65 long jump with a new club age-group record of 3 metres 17. This would have won Sandra the gold medal in the British Masters Indoor Championships a month earlier, and places her at the top of this year’s British W65 rankings.

In the Veterans AC five-kilometre race at Battersea Park on Tuesday, Andrew Aitken ran well to place seventh of the 76 finishers, recording 16 minutes 55.

In the East Surrey League road race at Ewell on Thursday, Consuelo Kennefick ran very well to be the third woman to finish, recording 30 minutes 45. Striders’ men were led by Tatsuya Okamoto who placed seventh (25:21). Andy Perks was 22nd (29:33), Mick Turner 25th (30:10), Stephen Kennefick 30th (30:45) and Stephen Siu 43rd (33:35).

On Saturday Rachel Lindley ran well to be the sixth woman to finish the South Downs Way 50-mile race from Worthing to Eastbourne, placing 38th overall out of 355 finishers in 8 hours 10 minutes 39. Nikki Javan was the 12th woman to finish, placing 88th overall (9:04:52). Michael Davis was 85th (8:58:46) and Debra Bourne 301st (11:40:37).

Also on Saturday, Striders had the first two finishers in the Bethlem Royal Hospital parkrun, with Marc Burrows placing first (21:10) and Andy Perks second (21:53). Niamh Vincent was the first woman to finish the South Norwood parkrun, placing ninth overall (22:08), while Consuelo Kennefick was the first woman to finish the Riddlesdown parkrun, placing 12th overall (22:55). James Rhodes was third out of 449 finishers in the Bromley parkrun (17:05), while Matthew Stone was fourth out of 383 finishers in the Tooting Common parkrun (18:18).