South of the Thames Cross-Country Championships

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the South of the Thames Cross-Country Championships, at Wimbledon Common on Saturday. Their best placing came from Elspeth Meakin who was 61st in the women’s race, competing the 12-kilometre course in 79 minutes 36. In the men’s race, James Rhodes placed 73rd of the 219 finishers (48:36), with Tom Gillespie 138th (53:48) and Josef Freedman 171st (57:47).

In the RunThrough Lee Valley Velopark 10-mile race, Keith Simpson ran well to place first in the M75 category and 38th overall, setting a club age-group record of 1 hour 40 minutes 40.

Also on Saturday, Marc Burrows was first out of 255 finishers in the Wanstead Flats parkrun (18:39). Tatsuya Okamoto was first out of 44 finishers in the Momoi Harappa parkrun near Tokyo (17:44). Chris Porter was first out of 103 finishers in the Bay East Garden parkrun in Singapore (18:24). Niamh Vincent was the first woman to finish the South Norwood parkrun, placing seventh overall out of 178 finishers (21:18). Phil Coales was second out of 414 finishers in the Southwark parkrun (17:13). Rachel Lindley was the third woman to finish the Clumber Park parkrun in Nottinghamshire, placing 19th overall out of 332 finishers (21:18). Striders had a total of 119 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.

In the Serpentine five-kilometre road race, at Hyde Park on Friday, Steve Corfield placed 39th out of 223 finishers (18:27), with Liam Redmond 53rd (18:50) and Darren Woods 125th (21:12).

On Sunday morning, Zoe Siu was the second female finisher in the Lloyd junior parkrun, placing fifth overall out of 107 finishers (8:35).