Phil leads Striders to cross country win at Lloyd Park

Striders of Croydon produced a good team performance to win the end-of-season inter-club cross-country match promoted by Croydon Harriers at Lloyd Park on Saturday. Striders had four of the first eight finishers, led by Phil Coales who ran very well to place second, covering the muddy six-mile course in 37 minutes 39 seconds. Justin Macenhill was fifth (39.04) while team manager Krzysztof Klidzia was sixth overall and first in the over-50 category (39.33). Steve Starvis completed the scoring team in eighth (39.39). This gave Striders a total of 21 points, well clear of Dulwich (30) and Croydon Harriers (35). Striders’ B team placed sixth. Andy Perks was 16th (42.16), Darren Over 18th (43.08), Matthew Ostrowski 23rd (44.29) and Amanda Barros 37th (54.58).

Earlier in the day, Simon Ambrosi was third in the weekly parkrun in Lloyd Park, covering the five kilometres in 19 minutes 05 seconds. Striders had a total of 49 finishers in the various weekly parkruns (16 at Lloyd park and 33 at other venues). Meanwhile Simone Luciani ran very well to place tenth out of more than 1000 runners in the Kingston Half-Marathon, recording 78 minutes 13 seconds.

This Saturday (12th) Peter Mills will be representing Surrey in the Inter-Counties Cross-Country Championship in Birmingham. He is the first Strider to represent Surrey in this event for 16 years, since Jane Lansdown did so in February 2000.