East Surrey League cross-country

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the East Surrey League cross-country race at Lloyd Park on Saturday afternoon. They did well to have four runners in the top 20. Tatsuya Okamoto ran very well to finish eighth, with Lee Flanagan eleventh, Krzysztof Klidzia 13th, and Matthew Stone completing the scoring team in 19th. Team manager Andy Perks led the B team and was followed by Kerim Suruliz, Tim Lawlor, Luke Burden and Nikki Javan. In the under-17 race, Daniel Finch ran well to finish 36th, completing the four-kilometre course in 15 minutes 55. His younger brother Thomas Finch was 57th.

On Sunday morning, Jay Lidbetter had an excellent run to place fourth in a large field in the Eastbourne Half-Marathon. He finished in 78 minutes 20.

On Saturday morning, Andrew Aitken placed 38th in the Sri Chinmoy Mad March 10K at Battersea, recording 34 minutes 49. Graeme Drysdale was 74th in a new club M55 record of 37 minutes 19. Striders also had 92 finishers in the various weekly parkruns. Cindy Siu was the first woman to finish the Lloyd parkrun, placing 30th overall (24:44). Martin Filer was second in the Riddlesdown parkrun (18:34). Ellyw Evans was the second woman to finish the South Norwood parkrun, placing 19th overall (22:10). Consuelo Kennefick was the second woman to finish the Riddlesdown parkrun, placing 15th overall (22:52).

At the Birchfield Harriers Open Meeting at Birmingham, James Rhodes ran well to place third in his heat of the 800 metres. His time of 2 minutes 05.19 was less than four-tenths of a second outside his personal best.

Striders had several runners in the Brighton Half-Marathon. They were led by Katie Chadd who ran well to finish in 99 minutes 14.