Philip leads Striders in the heat at Sutton

Striders of Croydon had an impressive total of 26 finishers in the Sutton 10 kilometre road race at Nonsuch Park on Sunday, which was the second event in this year’s Surrey Road League. They were led by Philip Coales who had a very good run in unusually warm conditions to place 14th out of 459 finishers, recording 36 minutes 29 seconds. Lee Flanagan also ran well for 22nd (37.22) while Graeme Drysdale completed the scoring trio in 65th (40.36). Andy Perks was 107th (43.16) with Peter Laurence 127th (44.10) and John Punt 143rd (45.01). Striders’ women were led by Selena Wong who placed 267th overall in 52 minutes 21. Michelle Campbell was 280th (53.35), Sarah Botting 354th (60.07) and Ruth Pearson 370th (61.55).

Meanwhile James Bennett ran well to place sixth in a very large field in the Hackney Half-Marathon, recording 74 minutes 04 seconds. On the previous day Simon Ambrosi won the Roundshaw parkrun (18.35), while Striders had two of the first three finishers in the weekly parkrun at Lloyd Park, where Lee Flanagan was second (18.07) with Krzysztof Klidzia third (18.36). Michelle Campbell was the second woman to finish, placing 62nd overall (25.06). Striders had a total of 49 finishers in the various weekly parkruns (15 at Lloyd Park and 34 at other venues).