Lee, Krzysztof and Damian take Striders to fourth in Surrey

Striders of Croydon produced a good team performance in the Richmond Half-Marathon on Sunday, which incorporated the Surrey Championships and was the first event in this season’s Surrey Road League. Their men did very well to finish fourth in the team event, while their women were tenth.
Striders’ men were led by Lee Flanagan who ran very well to place 16th of the 669 finishers, recording 79 minutes 19 seconds. He finished just one second ahead of club colleague Krzysztof Klidzia who placed 18th overall and fourth in the over-40 category. Damian Macenhill completed the scoring trio in 22nd (82.04).
Striders’ women were led by Kate Custis who ran very well to finish 207th overall, and fifth in the women’s over-45 category, in 1 hour 43 minutes 08. Karen Macenhill was 382nd (1.57.10) and Charlotte Chapman 439th (2.02.18).

Striders faced strong opposition in their first Southern Veterans’ League match of the season, at Kingsmeadow on Monday. Their men placed fifth of the seven competing clubs, ahead of Kingston and Dorking, while their women were equal fifth, level on points with Hercules-Wimbledon and ahead of Dorking. Striders’ best performance came from Julian Spencer-Wood, who won the over-60 1500 metres in a new club age-group record of 5 minutes 27.2. At the same distance, Colin Cotton set a new club over-65 record of 6 minutes 19.8. Striders’ most successful event was the 2000 metre walk, where Mick Turner won the over-35 event (12.52.6) and Kim Ford was second in the women’s over-50 event (14.27.6). Striders’ leading points-scorer was Paul Cripps who competed in seven different events.