James leads Striders at muddy county race

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the annual Surrey Cross-Country Championships at Lloyd Park on Saturday. Their best performance came from James Bennett who ran very well to place 37th of the 236 finishers, covering the muddy twelve-kilometre course in 46 minutes 29 seconds. Matt Morgan also continued his return to form after injury by placing 73rd (48.52), while Ernie Hann, who had warmed up by placing second in the Lloyd parkrun a few hours earlier, placed 85th (50.02). Simon Ambrosi was 94th (50.51) with Krzysztof Klidzia 99th (51.07) and Damian Macenhill completing the scoring team in 100th (51.15). Striders placed ninth out of the 17 complete teams, and also had twelve non-scorers. Striders’ women were led by Serena Stracey who ran well to place 64th of the 129 finishers, covering the eight-kilometre course in 39 minutes 15 seconds. Debra Bourne was 88th (42.55) and Katie McInnes 113th (47.48). Striders’ youngest competitor, Sean Collard, ran well to place 28th in the under-17 race, covering the six-kilometre course in 23 minutes 17 seconds.

Striders also had a total of 42 finishers in the various local parkruns.