Striders run in the South of England Cross-Country Championships at Parliament Hill Fields

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the South of England Cross-Country Championships at Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday. Their best placing came from Steph Upton, who ran very well to place 270th of the 694 finishers in the senior women’s race, covering the muddy eight-kilometre course in 39 minutes 35 seconds. Striders’ men were led by veteran Krzysztof Klidzia who ran well to place 431st of the 1172 finishers in the senior men’s race, completing the 15-kilometre course in 61 minutes 38 seconds. He was followed by another of Striders’ veterans, Matthew Stone, who placed 569th (64:33). Luke Burden was 726th (67:45), team manager Andy Perks 798th (69:49) and Andrew Pickering 827th (70:40). Striders’ oldest finisher, Rob Zietz, placed 906th (73:10) while Mick Turner was 933rd (74:19) and Simon Webster 1068th (80:50). They placed 70th in the team event.

Earlier in the day, Striders had 86 finishers in the various weekly parkruns. Selena Wong was the second woman to finish the Lloyd parkrun, placing 26th overall (24:34). Robert Lines was third in the Riddlesdown parkrun (19:27), while Simon Ambrosi was third in the Bethlem Royal Hospital parkrun (19:38). There were fourth places for Samuel Hansen at Newcastle (17:24), Phil Coales at Clapham Common (17:59), Graeme Drysdale at Beckenham Place (18:50) and Lee Flanagan at Lloyd Park (19:39). Meanwhile Chris Morton placed 16th out of 101 finishers in the RunThrough 10-mile road race at Lee Valley, recording 74 minutes 37 seconds.