Striders Women perform well in the South Downs Way 100

Two members of Striders of Croydon produced excellent performances in the South Downs Way 100-mile race, from Winchester to Eastbourne in hot conditions on Saturday. Ally Whitlock was the fourth woman to finish, placing first in the over-40 age-group and 56th overall out of 433 starters. She finished in 21 hours 18 minutes 38 seconds, which was 17 seconds quicker than her nearest rival in the over-40 age-group. Club colleague Debra Bourne was the tenth woman to finish, placing first in the over-50 age-group and 95th overall, and recording a personal best 22 hours 31 minutes 57 seconds.

On the same day, Striders had four of the first five finishers in the Conquer Crystal Palace Run Challenge five-kilometre race. Ignacio Gonzalez de Rivera was second in 19 minutes 15 with Mark Lankester third (19:31), Conor O’Hara-Barrett fourth (19:39) and Steve Massey fifth (20:00).

James Rhodes had another very good run in the University of Birmingham Open Meeting on Wednesday. He finished second in his heat of the 800 metres, recording a new personal best of 2 minutes 07.13 seconds.