Striders second in Division 2

Striders of Croydon produced an excellent team performance to place second of nine clubs in their Surrey Cross-Country League match at Richmond Park on Saturday, consolidating their second place in the overall Division Two table. They were led by Peter Mills who ran very well to place sixth out of the 217 finishers, covering the five-mile course in 28 minutes 26 seconds. Phil Coales also ran well to finish eleventh (28.51) while Bill Makuwa was 24th (29.59), James Bennett 27th (30.03), Alastair Falconer 32nd (30.15), Tatsuya Okamoto 37th (30.29) and Lee Flanagan 50th (31.03). Rob Lines placed third in the over-45 age-group and 62nd overall (31.53), while Liam Redmond was 84th (32.48) and Simon Ambrosi completed the scoring team in 88th (32.56). Striders also had an impressive total of 17 non-scorers, including Matt Stone who ran well to win the over-55 age-group in 33 minutes 32.

Earlier in the day, Striders did well to field 16 women in their Division Two match at Nonsuch Park. Their A team placed eleventh, led by Becky Laurence who ran well to place 34th of the 269 finishers, covering the six-kilometre course in 26 minutes 37 seconds. Steph Upton was 56th (27.54), Nikki Javan 68th (28.29), Debra Bourne 80th (29.02) and Carolyn Storey 83rd (29.08). The B team were fourth in their category. Michelle O’Mahony was 84th (29.08) with Adele Boesinger 93rd (29.32), Lucy Kulp 106th (30.06), Rachel Vinton 110th (30.20) and Selena Wong 121st (30.47).  Striders’ youngest competitor, Lucy Finch, was 48th out of 85 finishers in the under-13 race.

This Saturday (18th) Striders will be competing in the London Cross-Country Championships, at Parliament Hill Fields.