South of the Thames Cross-Country

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the South of the Thames Cross-Country Association’s annual inter-club race at Beckenham on Saturday. Both their men and women placed 15th in the team event.

Striders’ women were led by Ellyw Evans who was the 38th woman to finish, completing the five-mile course in 36 minutes 49. Cindy Siu was 48th (37:58), Selena Wong 67th (40:51) and Linda Jones 74th (43:35).

Striders’ men were led by Andrew Aitken who placed 48th (28:08). James Rhodes was 50th (28:14), Phil Coales 64th (29:18), Matthew Stone 95th (30:45), Andy Perks 99th (30:59), Jason Gallagher 133rd (32:30), Tim Lawlor 169th (34:15), Simon Webster 178th (34:34), Robert Zietz 185th (35:28), Mick Turner 191st (36:01), Mark Nortje 193rd (36:16) and Jon Dean 201st (36:34).

Steve Corfield ran very well to place first in the M60 age-group, and 49th overall, in the Serpentine five-kilometre road race at Hyde Park on Friday. He recorded 18 minutes 07, achieving an age-grading of 88.9%.

On Saturday morning, Striders had 93 finishers in the various weekly parkruns. Martin Filer was first out of 142 finishers in the Riddlesdown parkrun (18:40). Robert Lines was third in the Lloyd parkrun (20:19) with Simon Ambrosi fourth (20:30). Kara Boaks was the third woman to finish the Crystal Palace parkrun, placing 50th overall (22:02). Graeme Drysdale was sixth in the South Norwood parkrun (20:04).

On Sunday morning, Striders had seven finishers in the Lloyd junior parkrun. They were led by Zoe Siu who was the second female finisher, placing ninth overall (10:09).