Surrey League Cross-Country Finale; Good performances from the Ladies & Mens teams
Alastair Falconer, from Striders of Croydon, had an excellent run to place third out of 198 finishers in the final Surrey Cross-Country League Division Two match of the season, at Lloyd Park on Saturday. He completed the muddy five-mile course in 29 minutes 40 seconds. Phil Coales also ran well to place 27th, just ahead of veteran Krzysztof Klidzia who was 29th overall and second in the over-50 category, both runners recording 31 minutes 47. Tatsuya Okamoto was 37th (32:05) with Peter Mills 52nd (32:32), Lee Flanagan 54th (32:42), Bill Makuwa 60th (33:09). Matthew Stone was 62nd overall and first in the over-55 age-group (33:18), while Simon Ambrosi was 77th (33:39) and James Rhodes completed the A team in 82nd (33:48). Striders had an impressive total of 25 finishers, and produced their best performance of the season to place third of the nine clubs in the match, while their B team placed third in their category. Striders finished the season in seventh place in the Division Two table. Individually, Krzysztof Klidzia won the overall over-50 category with club colleague Matthew Stone second, while Robert Zietz won the over-60 age-group.
Earlier in the day, Striders’ women were competing in their Division Two match at Richmond Park. They finished sixth in the match and fourth in the overall Division Two table. They were led by Jennifer Gutteridge who ran well to place 23rd, completing the five-mile course in 37 minutes 13. Ally Whitlock was 28th (37:45), Steph Upton 36th (38:20), Nikki Javan 45th (38:38) and Debra Bourne 64th (40:30). For the B team, Susanna Lutman was 127th (45:25), Maria Gabriel 142nd (46:47), Ruth Pearson 167th (48:53), Jadwiga Brzask-Makiela 183rd (51:38), Michelle Wilson 187th (52:06), Jane Hughes 188th (52:13) and Michelle Klein 193rd (53:11).