SPA Striders’ cross country season has come to a close, following strong showings from their teams.
The women’s team finished eighth overall in Division 1, the men ranked seventh in Division 2, whilst the masters finished in second for the season after Saturday’s results.
Imogen Peck (33:45) was first past the line for the Striders, followed by Fiona Edwards (34:23), Jo Fleming (34:56) and Laura Peake (35:11) and Mairi Walker (35:16) as the top five finishers for the club.
Susie Stannard (37:48), Helene Wright (38:00), Bethan Gwynn (38:17), Jude Baum (41:53) finished soon after, whilst Anne-Claire Bennion made her cross country debut with a time of 46:47; followed by Ves Hill (51:01) to complete the line-up.
The male Striders finished eighth overall in their race, led by captain Chris McKeown (37:54) in eighth position. He was closely followed by Ian Allen (38:14) in 10th and Adam Notley (38:49) as the other runner below the 40 minute mark.
Aitor Tudero (40:24) finished as a qualifier, while Steve Taylor (41:12), Simon Ludford (44.42), Pete Teevan (45:18), Chris Wilson (45:47), Ian Davis (49:49), Ben Cohen (49:59), Rob Egan (52:37), Matt Leydon (53:56) and Kevin Baskerville (54: 36) rounded off the race for Spa.
Melissa Venables was one of a number of Striders to record personal best’s at the weekend, as she retained her first female finisher at the 70k Brecon to Cardiff race, smashing the women’s course record by 15 minutes and coming tenth overall.
At the Cannock Chase 10 mile, Dawn Clark (1:22:12) finished first in the FV40 category as fourth fastest woman home, while Claire Westrope (1:42:58) came in as the seventh FV45 finisher.
Liz Draper ran the Yorkshire Hardmoors Saltburn Marathon in five hours and 52 minutes, proving her 60th marathon and her first Hardmoors finish in under six hours.
Ash Hogg tackled the mud at the Mavericks Silva Dark race, to finish the 15K in 1:55:36, while Dan Martin completed the Barcelona half marathon in 1:45:47 as Spa’s representative.
Elsewhere, the Striders excelled at the Draycote Water 10K.
Clare Hinton (43:15) was the fifth fastest female and second fatest in the FV40 category, while Sue Cox (47:12) was second out of the FV50 runners.
Ruth Tennant (47:41), Bev Stephens (54:57) and Tess Robinson (56:18) all ran personal bests in the 10k,Tess taking over two minutes off her previous time.
The remaining finishers for Striders were Fern Donoghue (52:16), Shaun Martin (48:43), Anthony Claydon (49:01) and Michael Clarke (50:10).
