James breaks Striders marathon record at Edinburgh

James Bennett, from Striders of Croydon, produced an excellent run to place 13th in a large field in the Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday. His time of 2 hours 36 minutes 40 seconds broke his own club record for the distance, which he had set in Amsterdam last year.

Striders produced some good performances in their second Southern Veterans League match of the season, at Ewell on Monday. Their men finished equal fourth of the seven competing clubs, level on points with local rivals Croydon Harriers, while their women were sixth. For Striders’ men, Paul Cripps won the M50 triple jump with a club age-group record of 9.86 metres, having earlier placed second in the M50 200 metres with a club age-group record of 28.6 seconds. Julian Spencer-Wood ran very well to win the M60 800 metres in a club M65 record of 2 minutes 41.5, while Lee Flanagan was second in the M35 800 metres (2.17.2). Striders’ women found the opposition strong, their highest points-scorer being Sandra Francis who was fourth in both the W50 200 metres (37.1) and long jump (3.12). In the 800 metres Steph Upton was fourth in the A race (3.17.7) while Victoria Legge was fourth in the B (4.22.6).

On Saturday Simone Luciani was the first man home in the 300th weekly parkrun in Lloyd Park, recording 17 minutes 49. Lee Flanagan was third (18.34) with Krzysztof Klidzia fourth (19.02). Phil Coales was second in the Wimbledon parkrun (17.04). Striders had a total of 56 finishers in the various weekly parkruns (22 at Lloyd Park and 34 at other venues).