London Cross-Country Championships

Striders faced strong opposition in the London Cross-Country Championships, at Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday afternoon. They were led by Phil Coales, who placed 129th of the 441 finishers, completing the undulating ten-kilometre course in 43:05. Tom Gillespie was 213rd (46:12) and Stephen Siu 375th (54:40).

Phil Coales was in action again on Sunday morning in the Beckenham Charity Trail 10K, where he ran well to place fourth out of 187 finishers (39:52). John O’Mahony was 29th (47:46), Darren Woods 36th (49:21), Steve Smith 66th (53:09), Calum O’Hara-Barrett 95th (56:36), Maili Singh 117th (59:28), David Gunaratnam 118th (59:41), Benjamin Burton 134th (62:05) and Michelle Jardine 149th (63:49).

On Saturday morning, Striders had a total of 124 finishers in the various weekly parkruns. Martha Taylor was the first woman to finish the Bramshall Road parkrun at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, placing fourth overall out of 121 finishers (20:13). Kara Boaks was the first women to finish Lloyd parkrun, placing 15th overall (23:02) and Rachel Lindley was the second woman to finish (23:52). Whilst Lee Flanagan was second out of 244 finishers (20:08), and Erik Schrijnemaekers placed third (20:48). Tatsuya Okamoto placed second out of 156 finishers in the Futakotamagawa parkrun in Japan (17:03). Marc Burrows was second out of 192 finishers in the Morden parkrun (19:10). Consuelo Kennefick was the second woman to finish the Riddlesdown parkrun, placing 14th overall out of 181 finishers (23:07). Becky Laurence was the second woman to finish the Dartford parkrun, placing 50th overall out of 258 finishers (26:20). Nathan Robertshaw was third out of 419 finishers in the Eastbourne parkrun (18:11), while Chris Bourchier was third out of 241 finishers in the Harkerville parkrun in South Africa (20:09).