Fairlands Valley Spartans’ Ladies track and field team, defending champions in the Eastern Masters Athletic Club League, have charged into the final of this year’s competition. The women were in the comfortable position of knowing they had already secured their position in the final at the previous match, winning the Central Division from Milton Keynes. However, they finished the divisional matches in style, taking victory over Milton Keynes at their home track.
The final will see the team returning to the Stantonbury Campus in Milton Keynes on Sunday 23rd September, spectators welcome!
The Men’s team have had a much improved season his time around and the main question at the last match was whether they could join the women in the final. They needed to be in front of Bedford and County Athletics Club by two and a half points for automatic qualification.
They finished in a fine 2nd place on the night behind Milton Keynes but agonizingly only 2 points in front of Bedford and County Athletics Club. There are still places left in the final, and Fairlands Valley Spartans Men are still hoping to qualify for one of these spaces by being one of the best third places from the three divisions.
Nine women and Ten men competed, and individual performances in the final match were as follows:
Men
Anton McCalla was second the long jump and discus
Steve Mayfield had a very busy evening doing the 200m (2nd), Discus (2nd), Javelin, Long Jump and Pole Vault (3rd) plus relay.
Richard Bruce – 200m (2nd), Javelin (3rd)
Mark Freeman – 4th 200m 5th Discus
Pete Smith – 1st 400m Hurdles
Chris Westcott -2nd 1 Mile
Dave Bowker – 3rd M50 1 Mile
Barry Osborne – 3rd 1 Mile
Dave Stephenson 3rd M50 Pole Vault
Paul Holgate – 4th 400m Hurdles, 6th in Javelin and Long Jump Mile non- scoring
Women
Chris Lathwell – 1st in Mile & 400 hurdles, 4th 200m
Monica Brown – 1st in 200, Javelin and Long Jump
CathyCraig – 2nd in 200m, 2nd in 300m hurdles & discus
Sharon Crowley – 2nd in Mile
Tessa Stephenson – 1st 300m hurdles 2nd discus
Andrea Westcott – 3rd Javelin
Peta Wilson – 5th discus
Steph Mayfield – 1st pole vault, 4th long jump
Yuko Gordon – 1st in LJ, 2nd 1 mile, 4th Javelin.
Hatfield Forest Half Marathon
Sam Simmons was first Spartan to finish the Hatfield Forest Half, and in spite of the 30 degree heat ran a new PB of 2:13:05, beating his previous best at the distance by 80 seconds.
He was joined by Julie Shadbolt who completed in 2:16:56 and Erica Grayson who finished in a time of 2:26:26.
Forest of Dean
Roger Biggs continued his recovery from heart surgery with a Half Marathon on the trails of the Forest of Dean in Herefordshire.
On a very hot sunny day, entirely run on hilly forest trails, Roger completed the 13.1 miles in a time of 2:51:34.
Regent’s Park 10k
Paul Holgate & Roger Biggs were in the capital on Tuesday evening to run a 10k in Regent’s Park.
In good conditions, although a little warm for running, Paul finished in 56:59 and Roger 1:08:47.
Parkrun Round up 4th August 2018
It was a very busy parkrun Saturday with Spartans running in 13 different locations up and down the country plus one Spartan was stateside.
At Stevenage Spartans donned their stripes for the first Stripey Saturday of the month. Danny SCANLON was 6th in a new PB of 19:08. Tim Saban also got a PB running his 49th Parkrun of 20:49 (first in age category).
Steve DOBNER ran San Francisco’s Chrissy Fields Parkrun in 36:28. The course starts on the San Francisco Bay trail and heads west towards the Golden Gate Bridge.
In Windermere Erica Grayson ran Newby Bridge Parkrun, Paul Jennings joined 82 others running in Rochdale, Jim Brown was in North Yorkshire, Rowena Rutledge in Poole and Alison Shelley in Bodmin. Tracy Stiles and Monica SMITHSON ran the shady Rushmere course. Full details of all parkruns and times are below. Let’s see how many parkruns Spartans get to next week!
Tables
Parkruns
St Albans parkrun
A total of 392 runners took part.
View full results for St Albans parkrun event #347
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 164 | 146 | Michael O’KEEFE | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:25:51 |
Milton Keynes parkrun
A total of 470 runners took part.
View full results for Milton Keynes parkrun event #436
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 414 | 272 | Graham HILL | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:37:28 |
Poole parkrun
A total of 659 runners took part.
View full results for Poole parkrun event #381
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 403 | 94 | Rowena RUTLEDGE | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:28:38 |
Stevenage parkrun
A total of 247 runners took part.
View full results for Stevenage parkrun event #112
Wimpole Estate parkrun
A total of 302 runners took part.
View full results for Wimpole Estate parkrun event #276
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 121 | 98 | Barry KING | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:26:41 |
| 182 | 48 | Kelly MCHALE | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:30:02 |
Lanhydrock parkrun (Bodmin)
A total of 265 runners took part.
View full results for Lanhydrock parkrun event #236
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 136 | 38 | Alison SHELLEY | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:30:41 |
Watergrove parkrun, Rochdale
A total of 83 runners took part.
View full results for Watergrove parkrun, Rochdale event #205
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 62 | 50 | Paul JENNINGS | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:34:46 |
Fell Foot parkrun, Newby Bridge
A total of 278 runners took part.
View full results for Fell Foot parkrun, Newby Bridge event #183
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 146 | 35 | Erica GRAYSON | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:29:00 |
Panshanger parkrun
A total of 278 runners took part.
View full results for Panshanger parkrun event #205
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 59 | 55 | Andy JAY | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:24:26 |
Rushmere parkrun (Leighton Buzzard)
A total of 173 runners took part.
View full results for Rushmere parkrun event #143
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 110 | 28 | Monica SMITHSON | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:32:29 |
| 134 | 42 | Tracy STILES | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:34:21 |
Dalby Forest parkrun (North Yorkshire)
A total of 230 runners took part.
View full results for Dalby Forest parkrun event #121
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 48 | 35 | Jim BROWN | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:24:45 |
Pocket parkrun (St Neots)
A total of 199 runners took part.
View full results for Pocket parkrun event #8
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 14 | 13 | Thomas SAUKA | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:21:16 |
Crissy Field parkrun (San Francisco)
A total of 190 runners took part.
View full results for Crissy Field parkrun event #184
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Club | Run Time |
| 176 | 108 | Steven DOBNER | Fairlands Valley Spartans RC | 00:36:28 |