Surrey Cross-Country League

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in their first Surrey Cross-Country League matches of the season, at Epsom Downs on Saturday. Striders’ men did well to place second out of ten clubs in their Division Three match. They were led by Tatsuya Okamoto who ran well to place seventh, completing the eight-kilometre course in 29 minutes 57. Andrew Aitken was 15th (30:59), Phil Coales 16th (31:07), James Rhodes 18th (31:11) and Martin Filer 23rd (31:41). Matthew Stone did well to place first in the M60 age-group and 33rd overall (32:16). Liam Redmond was 45th (33:02), Simon Ambrosi 50th (33:14), Conor O’Hara-Barrett 53rd (33:28) and Steve Corfield completed the scoring team in 56th (33:36).

Striders’ B team also placed second in their category. Tom Gillespie was 57th (33:40), Andy Perks 60th (33:47), Erik Schrijnemaekers 61st (33:49), Kerim Suruliz 71st (34:19), Jason Gallagher 76th (34:43), Simon Webster 84th (35:06) and Stephen Harris 110th (36:41). Jon Dean was first in the M65 age-group and 113th overall (36:50). Mick Turner was 130th (38:08), Robert Zietz 135th (38:40), Mark Harman 163rd (43:11) and Rotimi Oyegunle 165th (45:37).

Striders’ women placed 17th in their Division Two match. They were led by Jennifer Gutteridge who ran well to place 19th, completing the six-kilometre course in 28 minutes 09. Cindy Siu was 60th (31:21), Selena Wong 97th (34:04), Linda Jones 102nd (35:15), Jadwiga Brzask-Makiela 123rd (40:03) and Ruth Pearson 128th (40:34).

In the Cabbage Patch 10-mile race at Twickenham on Sunday, which was the final race in this year’s Surrey Road League, Peter Johnson ran 67 minutes 39, followed by Simon Webster (69:28) and Megan Davies (1:47:06).

James Bennett placed 39th out of more than 4000 finishers in the Lisbon Marathon, recording 2 hours 50 minutes 43.