Big Half-Marathon

Three runners from Striders of Croydon ran well to take first places in parkruns outside the UK on Saturday. In Japan, Tatsuya Okamoto placed first out of 34 finishers at the Momoi Harappa parkrun (17:36), while James Rhodes placed first out of 36 finishers at the Sunshine Beach parkrun in Otsu (18:21). Meanwhile, Phil Coales placed first out of 46 finishers at the Olsztyn parkrun in Poland (18:49). 

Back in the UK, Martha Taylor was the first female finisher in the Hoblingwell parkrun, placing fourth overall out of 137 finishers (21:10). Niamh Vincent was the first female finisher in the South Norwood parkrun, placing 14th overall out of 236 finishers (21:23). Zoe Siu was the third female finisher in the Roundshaw parkrun, placing 44th overall out of 225 finishers (23:54). Marc Burrows was fourth out of 218 finishers in the Walthamstow parkrun (20:04). Striders had a total of 124 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.

In the Blackheath & Bromley Open Meeting, at Norman Park on Monday, Steve Corfield placed eighth in his heat of the 800 metres (2:17.44), while Lorraine Hunte was eighth in her heat of the 100 metres (18.09). In the Stan Allen Mile races, at Tooting Bec on Wednesday, there were personal bests for Vanessa Wheeler (8:03.28) and Sarah Allport (9:30.05).

Striders had several competitors in the Big Half-Marathon, from Tower Bridge to Greenwich on Sunday. Peter Johnson ran 1:37:48, and was followed by James Benjamin (1:40:06), Grace Champion (1:57:51), Vipul Karma (1:59:00), Maili Singh (2:05.55), Jay Crawford (2:08:37) and Kate Gray (2:32:38). Caleb Macenhill placed second out of 139 finishers in the Lloyd junior parkrun (8:07), while Zoe Siu placed third out of 76 finishers in the Wilsons School junior parkrun (8:16).