Andy Elliott first over-70 at East Surrey League annual road race

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the East Surrey League’s annual road race at Ewell last Thursday. They had to settle for sixth place in the team competition. Striders’ best performance came from Sam Hansen who ran well to finish 16th, completing the four and a half mile course in 26 minutes 46 seconds. Matt Stone was 22nd (27:05), Andy Perks 26th (27:34) and Mick Turner 34th (28:45). Niamh Vincent was the fifth woman to finish, placing 45th overall (31:16). Striders’ oldest competitor, Andy Elliott, finished first in the over-70 age-group, placing 73rd overall (41:40).

Striders had several competitors in the Brighton Marathon on Sunday. Stephen Massey placed 45th in the over-50 age-group, recording 3 hours 18 minutes 40 seconds. Richard Sena was 54th in the same age-group (3.23:35). Nikki Javan was the 151st woman to finish, recording a personal best 3 hours 40 minutes 30. There were also personal bests for Marianne Chua (3.48:46), Selena Wong (4.00:28) and Lucy Kulp (4.13:04). On the same day, Susanna Lutman ran the Leamington Regency 10K in 49 minutes 08 seconds, while Louise Grech ran the Crystal Palace 10K in 51 minutes 48.

On Saturday Striders had an impressive total of 71 finishers at the various weekly parkruns (25 at Lloyd Park and 46 at other venues). Their best placing came from Krzysztof Klidzia who was second at Roundshaw (19:34). Niamh Vincent was the second woman to finish the South Norwood parkrun, placing 15th overall (22:22). Lee Flanagan was third at Cirencester (18:39) and Tom Lawson was fourth at Lloyd Park (19:28).

This Sunday (22nd) Striders have 15 competitors in the London Marathon.