Jay Lidbetter wins the Richmond Runfest Half-Marathon

Jay Lidbetter, from Striders of Croydon, had an excellent run to win the Richmond Runfest Hal-Marathon on Sunday. In hot conditions, he completed the course in 75 minutes 49 seconds. There were more than two thousand finishers. Club colleague Ben Dowling placed 37th (1:29:07) while Tim Lawlor was 334th (1:47:15). Josephine Thompson was the 123rd woman to finish (1:55:52).

In the full marathon, starting earlier in the day at the same venue, Matt Byrne placed 37th in the M50 age-group (4:46.12), while Jeremy Tonkin was 27th in the M55 age-group (5:05.27).

On Saturday, Erik Schrijnemaekers placed first out of 208 finishers in the Dartford parkrun (19:16). Niamh Vincent was the first woman to finish the South Norwood parkrun, placing ninth overall (21:26). There were second places for Andrew Aitken in the South Norwood parkrun (18:03) and for Martin Filer in the Riddlesdown parkrun (18:50). Marc Burrows was third in the Roundshaw parkrun (21:02). There were fourth places for Simon Ambrosi in the South Norwood parkrun (19:33) and for Matthew Stone in the Lloyd parkrun (20:20), while Debra Bourne was the fourth woman to finish the Lloyd parkrun, placing 36th overall (24:51). Striders had a total of 98 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.

In the South London Harriers Endurance Championships, at Coulsdon on Tuesday, Tatsuya Okamoto ran well to place fifth in the A 5000 metres (16:32.08), while Peter Johnson placed ninth in the B race (19:38.76). In the Stan Allen Mile at Tooting on Wednesday, Stephen Allport placed sixth in the M45 age-group (5:54.08).

In the Great North Run on Sunday, Stephen Allport ran 1:50:43 and was followed by Michael Joseph (1:51:13), Sally Bartlett (2:17:14), Pippa Bruce (2:26:48), Michelle Klein (2:57:44), Stephen Tyler (3:15:08) and Sarah Allport (3:26:43).