Sandra Francis wins two bronze medals in the British Masters Indoor Championships

Sandra Francis, from Striders of Croydon, did very well to win two bronze medals in the British Masters Indoor Championships at Lee Valley on Saturday. She placed third in both the W60 long jump (2.98 metres) and the W60 60 metres (10.72 seconds).  Club colleague Lorraine Hunte was fifth in the W65 60 metres, recording 10.77 seconds and gaining an impressive age-grading of 86.62 per cent.

Also on Saturday, Striders produced a good team performance in the East Surrey League’s final cross-country race of the season, at Lloyd Park. They had five of the first 13 finishers, led by Tatsuya Okamoto who ran very well to finish fifth. Veteran Krzysztof Klidzia also ran well to take eighth place with Lee Flanagan tenth, Simon Ambrosi 12th and Matthew Stone 13th. Striders’ women were led by Cress Davidson, who was followed by club colleague Karen Speed. Striders had a total of 12 finishers, and also had 81 finishers in the various weekly parkruns earlier in the day.

In the Surrey Half-Marathon at Woking on Sunday, Alastair Falconer ran very well to place 15th out of 2930 finishers in 73 minutes 39 seconds, just one place ahead of club colleague Simone Luciani who ran 73 minutes 43. These performances lift them to fourth and fifth place in Striders’ all-time club rankings. Phil Coales also ran well to finish fifth in the Frank Harmer Memorial 10 kilometre road race at Brockwell Park, completing the undulating course in 37 minutes 04 seconds.

This Saturday (14th) Striders will be competing in their annual ‘mob match’ against local rivals Croydon Harriers, in conjunction with the weekly South Norwood parkrun, while on Sunday they will be hosting the tenth Croydon Half-Marathon, starting and finishing from their headquarters in Sandilands.