Jon Dean wins gold in M60 400m at South of England Masters Championships

Jon Dean, from Striders of Croydon, produced an excellent run to win gold in the M60 400 metres at the South of England Masters Championships, at Battersea Park on Sunday. He recorded 67.76 seconds, winning his first South of England championship. Club colleague Alan Dolton won bronze in the M60 1500 metres (6:05.39).

The previous Monday, Jon had set three new M60 club age-group records in Striders’ penultimate Southern Veterans League match of the season, at Walton-on-Thames. He won the 5000 metres (20:24.4) and placed third in the 200 metres (31.0) and sixth in the triple jump (7.61). Striders’ leading points-scorer was Paul Cripps, who gained a double win in the M50 triple jump (10.04) and high jump (1.50), and also placed second in the 200 metres (29.4) and third in the discus with a club age-group record of 22 metres 55. Adrian Bradley was second in the M35 200 metres (26.5), while Steve Massey was second in the M50 5000 metres (19:25.4) and third in the 800 metres (2:30.0). Kevin Bannister set a club M65 triple jump record of 7 metres 51, placing fourth. In the M70 800 metres, team manager Andy Elliott set a club age-group record of 3 minutes 52.5, placing fifth. For Striders’ women, Jane Sparks was third in the shot with a club age-group record of 5 metres 96, while Sandra Francis was third in the W60 shot with a club age-group record of 3 metres 79. Striders’ men placed fourth of the eight clubs in the match, while their women were sixth.

On Saturday, Striders had an impressive total of 73 finishers in the various weekly parkruns (31 at Lloyd Park and 42 at other venues). Niamh Vincent was the first woman to finish the South Norwood parkrun, placing eleventh overall in 21 minutes 27. Lee Flanagan was third out of 319 finishers at Lloyd Park (18:19).