Matt Stone sets new club MV55 half-marathon record.

Matthew Stone, from Striders of Croydon, produced an excellent run in the RunThrough Half-Marathon at Newbury Racecourse on Saturday. He placed eighth out of 208 finishers, and his time of 80 minutes 53 seconds was a new club men’s over-55 record. It was 17 seconds faster than the previous record, which had been set by Dave Shaw at Hampton Court last year.

Also on Saturday, James Rhodes ran very well in the South London Open Meeting at Coulsdon. He placed sixth in the 800 metres in 2 minutes 09.82 seconds, which was less than half a second outside his personal best, set at Tooting last September. Susan Haynes was the 14th woman to finish the Lower Hutt parkrun in New Zealand, placing 77th overall in 27 minutes 28 seconds. Three days earlier, Natalie Baynes was second in the W40 age-group in the ‘Chase the Sun’ five-kilometre road race at Brixton, recording 30 minutes 37. Robert McDonald was 65th out of 171 finishers in the ten-kilometre race at the same venue, recording 48 minutes 57.