Category awards for Burdus-Cook and Sarti in Ilmington series finale

MATT Burdus-Cook and Ivan Sarti led a strong showing for Stratford AC athletes at the fifth and final race in the Tempo Winter series in Ilmington on Sunday.

The ever-improving Burdus-Cook was the first Stratford athlete to finish, placing fifth in 39:18 – more than two minutes quicker than his first race in the anti-clockwise direction back in October.

He ended the series in third place overall, having improved his times in each of the five races.

To underline his massively increased form and athletic maturity, his cumulative time for the 2018-2019 series was some 18 minutes quicker than his total from last year.

Ivan Sarti finished ninth on Sunday in 41:08, shaving 45 seconds off his best time for the course.

It was his fourth M55 race win and he comfortably secured the overall series title in his category.

Chris Cond was the tenth man to finish, crossing the line just behind Sarti in 41:25.

The top three men in the M35 category filled the overall podium places in the series, but Cond was the next best and so took the M35 series prize.

Owen Goschen was the 16th man home and finished second in the M45 category.

Malcolm Bowyer clocked 45:25 to finish as the 20th man on the day and second in the M55 category.

Robin Kindersley laid down a good run in 46:44 to finish sixth in the M55 group.

David Smyth was 35th in 47:03 and Damian Wheeler was two places behind in 47:22.

Alan Dwyer (48:53) Joe Lee (49:15) and Adam Evans (50:00) came in 55th, 56th and 60th positions respectively.

Simon Curran (96th, 55:56) has shown steady improvement throughout the whole series, as has Stuart McLeod (1:02:05).

John Butler brought up the rear of the Stratford contingent, and he came home in 1:17:05.

Suzy Graham was the 24th woman on the day and sixth in her age group with a time of 55:53.

She was followed by Maggie MacLeod who clocked 57:47 to finish as the 33rd woman and fifth in her category.

Sarah Boundy came in just three seconds later (57:51).

Louise Stewart run a four-minute PB on the course (53rd, 1:02:04).

Alice Baxendale pulled out all the stops to set a good PB (65th 1:04:18), as did Clare Eynon (76th, 1:07:09).

Anna Threadgill (1:09:50), Kimberly Lee (1:11:34) and Gemma Smith (1:16:45) completed the Stratford team.