London Cross-Country Championships

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the London Cross-Country Championships, held at Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday. Their men’s team placed 23rd out of 39. Phil Coales was 104th, completing the undulating ten-kilometre course in 40 minutes 55. Harry Madgwick-Lawton was close behind him in 105th (40:58) with Andrew Aitken 148th (42:29), Luke Burden 251st (46:24), Andy Perks 301st (48:37) and Simon Webster 357th (52:01). Yasmin Anderson placed 278th in the senior women’s race, completing the six-kilometre course in 34:58.

Earlier in the day, Jennifer Gutteridge ran well to be the first woman to finish the Lloyd parkrun, placing ninth overall out of 178 finishers (22:16). Striders’ men were led by Simon Ambrosi who placed third (20:30) with Steve Corfield fourth (20:33). Cindy Siu was the fourth woman to finish, placing 35th overall (25:19). Consuelo Kennefick was the first woman to finish the Riddlesdown parkrun, placing seventh overall out of 105 finishers (22:12). Matthew Stone placed first out of 47 finishers in the Lullingstone parkrun (20:22), while Erik Schrijnemaekers was third (20:58). Anna O’Sullivan was the second woman to finish, placing 11th overall (26:23), while Becky Laurence was the third woman to finish, placing 20th overall (28:50). Marc Burrows was fourth in the Donaupark parkrun in Vienna (18:58). Striders had a total of 90 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.

Graeme Drysdale placed 84th out of 228 finishers in the Sri Chinmoy Golden Leaf 10K at Battersea (38:34).

A week earlier, Matthew Stone had again run well to place eighth in an open cross-country race at Dublin, held in conjunction with the Masters International race for which he was a travelling reserve. He was the first over-60 to finish, and completed the five-mile course in 32 minutes 43