Strider’s Rachel Lindley wins the women’s race at the tenth annual Croydon Half-Marathon

Striders of Croydon hosted the tenth annual Croydon Half-Marathon from their headquarters at Sandilands on Sunday. The race was won by Daniel Gaffney of South London Harriers in a new course record of 70 minutes 47 seconds, which was 41 seconds faster than the previous record set by Abdi Madar of Newham in 2012.  The first Strider to finish was Alastair Falconer who ran well to place fourth in 76 minutes 57. Krzysztof Klidzia also ran well to be the first over-50 to finish, placing ninth overall in 80 minutes 53. Rachel Lindley had an excellent run to be the first woman to finish, recording 85 minutes 54, which was just one second faster than club colleague Matthew Stone who was the first over-55 to finish. He was followed by Steve Corfield (87:22), Martin Filer (89:42), Michael Davis (91:15) and Mark Kelly (92:24). Niamh Vincent ran very well to be the fourth woman to finish, recording 92 minutes 40. Ally Whitlock was the eleventh woman to finish (1:44:55) and was followed by Molly Haviland (1:50:20), Selena Wong (1:50:29), Marianne Chua (1:51:18) and Maria Gabriel (1:51:53). There were a total of 260 finishers.

Rachel Lindley winning the Croydon Half Marathon © James Rhodes

In the Ashby Mile organised by Croydon Harriers on Thursday evening at Croydon Arena, Lorraine Hunte set a Striders W65 record of 7 minutes 38.3 seconds.