London Cross-Country Championships

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the London Cross-Country Championships at Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday. They were led by Phil Coales who placed 102nd out of the 469 finishers, completing the ten-kilometre course in 40 minutes 53. Liam Redmond was 242nd (45:37), Jason Gallagher 281st (46:43), Andy Perks 294th (47:06) and Mick Turner 428th (55:29). Striders placed 29th out of 38 complete teams.

In the Brighton 10K road race on Sunday, James Rhodes placed 86th out of more than 2400 finishers (34:20). Andrew Aitken was ninth in the M45 age-group and 100th overall (34:39), while Peter Mills was 215th (37:44). Graeme Drysdale was eighth in the M55 age-group and 325th overall (39:34). He was followed by Darren Woods (47:27) and Isabelle Kita (74:45).

On Saturday morning, Striders had an impressive total of 116 finishers at the various weekly parkruns. Erik Schrijnemaekers was first out of 44 finishers at the Bevendean parkrun in Sussex, completing the undulating course in 21:04. Michael Smaldon was third (23:05), while Keith Murkin was fifth (24:09) and Anna O’Sullivan was the third woman to finish, placing 15th overall (27:09). Closer to home, Martin Filer was fourth out of 157 finishers in the Riddlesdown parkrun (19:31). Conor O’Hara-Barrett was fifth out of 659 finishers in the Bromley parkrun (17:14). Lee Flanagan was fifth out of 201 finishers in the Lloyd parkrun (19:31), while Cindy Siu was the fifth woman to finish, placing 42nd overall (24:51). Ellyw Evans was the fifth woman to finish the Southwark parkrun, placing 60th overall (21:27).

Zoe Siu was the first female finisher in the Lloyd junior parkrun on Sunday morning, placing third overall out of 115 finishers (8:56).