Striders at the London Marathon

Matthew Stone, from Striders of Croydon, ran very well to win the M60 age-group in the European Aquathlon Championships in Bilbao last week. He was in sixth place after the one-kilometre swim but overtook all his rivals on the five-kilometre run, which he completed in 18 minutes 37 seconds. His total time of 34 minutes 02 placed him 47 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.

In the Serpentine five-kilometre road race at Hyde Park on Friday, Phil Coales ran well to place fourth out of 126 finishers in 16 minutes 38, lifting him to seventh place in Striders’ all-time club rankings.

Striders had 14 finishers in the TCS London Marathon on Sunday. Jay Lidbetter finished in 2 hours 55 minutes 13, while Graeme Drysdale ran 3 hours 05 minutes 30. Niamh Vincent ran 3 hours 19 minutes 56, lifting her to eighth place in Striders’ all-time women’s rankings. Steve Corfield also ran well to set a new club over-60 record of 3 hours 22 minutes 42. He was followed by Rotimi Oyegunle (3:43:07), Stephen Siu (4:01:30), Maria Gabriel (4:07:09), Kate Marshall (4:14:16), Grace Rehman (4:32:22), Marianne Chua (4:37:31), Sheena Hammond (4:48:02), James Harrison (5:03:49), Pip Bruce (5:03:57) and Hannah Luffman (5:24:38).

Matthew Stone again ran well to place first out of 174 finishers in the Lloyd parkrun on Saturday (19:36). Jemma Zakariyyau was the first woman to finish the Woodgate Valley parkrun (22:10). Striders had a total of 90 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.

In the TCS Mini-Marathon Borough Challenge on Saturday, Daniel Finch was 113th in the under-15 age-group (10:19) while his brother Thomas Finch was 99th in the under-13 age-group (10:39). The following morning, Thomas placed first out of 82 finishers in the Lloyd junior parkrun (8:21).