ANOTHER strong team performance by Spa Striders’ ladies saw them clinch promotion to Division One of the Midlands cross-country League on Saturday.
After leading the team over the line at each of the three previous races, Susie Stannard produced the goods again in Aldersley (Wolverhampton) by finishing 39th overall in a time of 25.39.
Fiona Edwards continued her recent impressive form by finishing in 26.46 to finish 50th in a field of 275 runners, while Kate Gasby (26.55) finished shortly behind in 56th.
Clare Hinton (27.17) and Caroline Whitehouse (27.22) had a close finish and ensured second-place for the Masters team on the day, but also second-place for the Striders Masters team in the overall competition.
The team was completed by Bethan Gwynn (28.04), Jude Baum (32.16), Helene Wright (35.15), Lorraine Parsons (35.55) and Suzi Graham (38.19).
Elsewhere, nine Striders made the journey to Berkshire to take part in the Bramley 20-mile race on Sunday, which consisted of a two-lap course hosted by Reading Roadrunners.
All Striders were looking to achieve a solid race as part of training for Spring marathons and Paul Edwards took the honour of finishing as the fastest member of the team hom in 2:16.19, and he was followed closey by Chris McKeown (2:16.56) with both using the event as training for the Manchester Marathon.
Hartwig Busch (2:24.27) also put in a strong performance along with Mike Cox (2:48.47) who completed the distance for the first time, while Clare Hinton (2:33.34) gradually increased her pace after running the second lap seven minutes quicker than the first.
Both Hinton and Fiona Edwards (2:42.41) showed great strength in their endurance running despite having produced excellent performances at cross-country events the day before.
