Shephard in hot form for Winter Series

ATHLETICS

RICHARD Shephard led home 23 Stratford AC runners in the second of the Tempo Winter Series races in Ilmington, reports Sarah Bland.

Shephard, who is coming back into some good form, finished second in a time of 37:21, not far behind the race winner of both races to date, Leamington's Paul Andrew.

Matt Burdus-Cook was seventh ahead of Dan Lynch in ninth position. Ivan Sarti led the next group home, 12th overall and a win in his new age category M55, followed by Owen Goschen (13th) who had a fantastic run for second in M45 and then Chris Cond 15th overall.

There were solid runs from Andy Cox, David Smyth and Emma Bexson, all coming within 47 minutes to give them top-40 places, with Bexson being the eighth woman finisher in a competitive field and third in her age category.

Joe Lee, Peter Sugden, Alan Dwyer and Damian Wheeler all finished in the top 60.

Stratford women Emma Parkin, Sarah Boundy and Rebecca Pridham all managed top-five category places. Ever consistent Suzi Graham ran another good race and an improving Simon Curran took an impressive two-and-a-half minutes off last month’s time.

New members Maggie Mcloud and Clare Eynon, graduates of the club’s couch to 5k programme, ran superbly, Maggie finishing within an hour and Clare in 1:12:24.

Alice Baxendale, John Butler and Gemma Smith brought the team home, a strong club outing with all the marshals, caterers and race organisers being club members too.

Coombe 8

FIVE members of Stratford AC took part in Sphinx AC Coombe 8, a tough multi-terrain course with a mixture of wooded trails and undulating farmland at the historic site of Coombe Abbey on the outskirts of Coventry, reports David Jones.

The first of these to finish was Lisa Dallisson in 99th place, with a time of 1:06.15, followed by Sarah Odell (127th - 1:09:37), Chris Whateley (1:15:50), Tara Lambert (1:21:09) and Pippa Abrahams (1:21:14).

For more athletics, see this week’s Herald.