More success for Stratford AC
AN international bronze in duathlon, five gold medals on the track and field, four top ten finishers in a Warwickshire Road Race League event and a strong showing in a tough 10k are among the latest successes for Stratford AC and its members.
Fern Hordern travelled to Transylvania, Romania, to compete in the Standard Distance Duathlon as part of the Multisport World Championships on 10th June.
After the first run of 10km, the 38km bike section included a leg-burning hill endured five times before the final 5km run. Hordern ran that in 23:02, her second quickest time over the distance to secure third place in the 50-54 age category with an overall time of 2:19:24.
Back in the UK, Paula Williams and Dave Wilson represented the club at the British Masters Athletics Championships at the Moorways track in Derby over the weekend. Wilson set a new M50 club record over 400m and Williams earned five gold medals.
Wilson’s 400m time of 60.04s smashed his PB of 60.98s set only the previous week in Nuneaton and he now has his sights set on breaking the minute for the distance. In the 200m Wilson achieved his third fastest time this year, despite a tough finishing straight into a strong headwind.
The headwind also challenged Williams in her first event of the day, the 80m hurdles, but she won in 13.98s to take her first gold of the day.
More golds followed in the long jump (4.55m), shot put (11.93m), triple jump (9.10m) and javelin (33.94m).
And more was to come, with Williams scoring a season’s best of 13.62s in the 100m to take the silver medal – her 13th medal in just eight days after her haul of seven golds in Nuneaton last week.
In the third fixture of the 2022 Warwickshire Road Race League, the Sphinx Summer 5 hosted by Sphinx AC at Coventry War Memorial Park, 25 gold and black vests lined up at the start.
By the finish they had secured top men’s team and added valuable points to the club’s position in the league.
Ben Kruze won the race in a time of 25:27, taking nearly a minute off the fastest known time for the five-mile course set in 2019.
Stratford AC took three more top ten places: Matt Burdus-Cook fourth in 27:22, Richard Liggatt seventh in 27:52; and Jamie Hall earning tenth in a time of 28:17, which included a new 5k PB.
Completing the Stratford contingent were Adam Evans (16th, 29:20), Adrian Mason (25th, 30:02), Tim Hutchinson (28th, 30:19), Adam Linforth (31st, 30:39), Richard Dobedoe (35th, 31:00), Max Ross (37th, 31:18), Joe Lee (42nd, 31:38), Drew Sambridge (44th, 31:51), Huw Crossweller (49th, 32:13), Fin Hutchinson (53rd, 32:34), Stuart Griffiths (125th, 35:36), Graham Hill (128th, 35:48), Clare Goodwin (191st, 38:34), Pete Wharton (196th, 38:47), Susan Hunt (205th, 39:16), Stuart Evans (218th, 39:49), Sarah Odell (234th, 40:39), David Maundrell (273rd, 43:36), Jan McLure (305th, 45:30), Kate Sergent (313th, 46:38) and John Butler (355th, 54:53).
In contrast to the relatively flat but very twisty Coventry course, Stratford runners also recently took on the challenging Tysoe Windmill 10k.
Crossweller was the first club runner over the finish, taking 2:30 of his previous best to record a time of 43:18.
Next for Stratford was Robin Langhorne taking 15th place in 48:48 and coming in at 21st and 22nd were Suzanne and Max Ross in 51:15.
Lesley Kirk (57:20), Suzi Graham (59:55), Sergent (1:06:41) and Lindsey Anderson (1:17:54) also finished.
