Striders of Croydon win East Surrey League
Striders of Croydon produced an excellent team performance to win the East Surrey League for the first time since 2003, and only the second time in the club’s history. Although they only finished fourth in the final match, the road race at Ewell on Thursday, their consistent results from the previous races enabled them to finish the season five points ahead of local rivals Croydon Harriers. Epsom finished third and Hercules-Wimbledon fourth.
At Ewell, Striders were led by Matt Stone who ran well to finish second in the over-50 category and 17th overall, covering the four and a quarter mile course in 26 minutes 53 seconds. He also won the league’s individual over-50 title. Andy Perks also ran well to place 23rd (27.32) and win the league’s individual over-40 title. Mick Turner was 26th (27.49) with John O’Mahony completing the scoring quartet in 44th (29.41), just one place ahead of club colleague Nigel Finch (29.47). In the under-17 race, Christopher Finch was 33rd and his sister Lucy was 49th.
In the Brighton Marathon on Sunday, Andy Perks had a very good run in warm conditions to record a personal best 2 hours 59 minutes 16 seconds. He was followed by Dave Shaw (3.14.52) and Sunjay Bhogal (3.48.34). For Striders’ women, Katie Chadd ran 3 hours 52 minutes 48, closely followed by Ally Whitlock (3.53.55). Both these times were personal bests. In the Paris Marathon, Graeme Drysdale ran 3 hours 16 minutes 50, while Selena Wong ran 4 hours 08 minutes 53.
Meanwhile Peter Mills ran well to place 39th in a large field in the Paddock Wood Half-Marathon, recording 74 minutes 56 seconds. Krzysztof Klidzia was 61st overall, and third in the over-50 category, in a club age-group record of 77 minutes 44. Klidzia also placed second in the weekly parkrun in Lloyd Park on Saturday, recording 18 minutes 06. Striders had a total of 57 finishers in the various weekly parkruns (26 at Lloyd Park and 31 at other venues).
