Blackheath Harriers’ open 10-kilometre cross-country race

Striders of Croydon had an excellent turnout of 29 runners for Blackheath Harriers’ open 10-kilometre cross-country race at West Wickham on Sunday. They were led by Tatsuya Okamoto who ran very well to place third of the 97 finishers, recording 41 minutes 27. Andrew Aitken also ran well to place fifth (42:09), while Matthew Stone ran well to be the first over-50 to finish, placing seventh overall (42:19). Krzysztof Klidzia was eighth (42:30) with Mark Lankester 15th (46:10) and Steve Corfield 19th (46:44). Striders had the first two juniors to finish with Chris Finch placing 25th (47:27) and his younger brother Daniel Finch 28th (47:45).

Striders’ women were led by Nikki Javan who was the sixth woman to finish, placing 60th overall (55:01). Ellyw Evans was the eighth woman to finish (55:32) with Kathryn Falconer 11th (59:15), Steph Upton 13th (59:48), Susanna Lutman 15th (60:51), Maria Gabriel 18th (63:30), Michelle Klein 23rd (77:02) and Vanessa Wheeler 24th (77:23).

Also on Sunday, James Rhodes ran very well in the 800 metres at the South of England Indoor Championships at Lee Valley. His time of 2 minutes 07.35 was only two-tenths of a second outside his personal best.

On Saturday Striders had the first female finisher at three different parkruns. Rachel Lindley was the first woman to finish the Coldham’s Common parkrun in Cambridge, placing 19th overall out of 369 finishers (19:21). Niamh Vincent was again the first woman to finish the South Norwood parkrun, placing 14th overall (22:05), while Consuelo Kennefick was the first woman to finish the Riddlesdown parkrun, placing ninth overall (22:50). For Striders’ men, Andrew Aitken finished second in the South Norwood parkrun (18:31). Striders had a total of 86 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.