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Club News Race Results

SPARTANS CELEBRATE THEIR 2023 WINNERS!!

Lots of Spartans enjoyed the club’s dinner and presentation evening at the Cromwell Hotel in Stevenage on Friday evening. 

Photo credit Keith Fenwick

YUKO GORDON is the new overall club champion with amazing scores of 100.2% for the short distance and 102.8% for the long distance series. 

ANDREW PATTERSON won the men’s open short distance with 79.0%, including winning the Hitchin 5K by 50 seconds, and the open long with 78.6%. 

ASHLEY JOHNSON won the women’s race at Hitchin by a similar margin and won the club’s open short distance championship for women with 73.9%. 

The age graded short championship for men went to SIMON JACKSON with 85.3%. 

FIONA CLARKE won the club’s open long distance championship for women with 54.7% just ahead of HARRIET SMITH on 54.0%. 

NICK GILL and VICKY ARCHER were the most improved Spartans. 

The Starter of the Year was JUDY KING.  The volunteer awards were Chair’s award MICHAEL O’KEEFE; Head Coach’s award JOHN HARRIS; President’s Award BRIAN WHITE; Cathy Craig Spartan of the Year CALLIE CHAPMAN. 

Some of our amazing winners! Photo Credit Keith Fenwick

The full list of amazing winners are noted as follows: 

Female Open Short  

1st        Ashley Johnson           

2nd       Vicky Archer                 

3rd        Kerstin Prior                 

Female Age Graded Short  

1st        Yuko Gordon              

2nd       Sharon Crowley           

3rd        Nicola Andersson        

Female Open Long  

1st        Fiona Clarke                 

2nd       Harriet Smith               

3rd        Sam Maidens               

Female Age Graded Long  

1st        Yuko Gordon             

2nd       Sharon Crowley          

3rd        Wendy Tharani           

Male Open Short  

1st        Andrew Patterson      

2nd       Nick Gill                        

3rd        Mike Jeffs                     

Male Age Graded Short 

1st        Simon Jackson             

2nd       Grant Ramsay              

3rd        John Harris                    

Male Open Long  

1st        Andrew Patterson       

2nd       Simon Fraser                

3rd        Grant Ramsay              

Male Age Graded Long 

1st        Simon Jackson              

2nd       David Harris-Cherguit  

3rd        Pete Smith                      

Overall Champion – Male – Andrew Patterson 

Overall Champion – Female – Yuko Gordon 

Overall Club Champion – Yuko Gordon 

Most Improved Spartan – Male – Nick Gill           

Most Improved Spartan – Female – Vicky Archer  

The Lisa Potter Starter of the Year Award – Judy King 

Chairs Award – Michael O’Keefe 

Head Coaches Award – John Harris 

Captains Awards – Liz Crowley and Michael O’Keefe 

Presidents Award – Brian White 

The Cathy Craig Spartan of the Year Award – Callie Chapman 

Photo credit Keith Fenwick

Essex 20 

NICK GILL ran 2:17:10 at Sunday’s Essex 20.  He decided to race it, aiming for sub 3-hour marathon pace (6:50 per mile/4:15 per km).  Managed to do exactly that and even split all the laps, and really enjoyed running with two guys – Matt and Callum – pretty much the whole way.  His last 20-mile race was back in 2019 at the Hillingdon 20 when he did 2:46:03 – so a big improvement on that.  

Needing to up his miles from a half marathon in preparation for the London Marathon JIM BROWN thought the Essex 20 would be the ideal opportunity.  He decided to chunk it up into 5Ks and see how long he could keep them under 30 minutes.  It went a lot better than expected and he finished in 3 hours 6 minutes 31 seconds, a 7 minute 20 second improvement on the fastest 20 he raced last year. 

Essex 20

Blickling Multi Terrain Half Marathon 

The Blickling multi-terrain half marathon near Aylsham in Norfolk saw CAROL PAUL come third in her age group (60 – 64) with 2:08:36.  She said the weather was ideal for running but underfoot it was a bit mucky. 

Carol with her medal after her amazing run!

Milton Keyenes Festival

SOPHIE PARSONS ran in the 10k event at the Milton Keynes Festival. It was hillier than she expected but she managed to complete the course in a brilliant time of 57:43!

Sophie reunited with Chester after her run.

Parkrun 

Total turnout at Stevenage parkrun went past 500 again on Saturday.  This time to 518 and no doubt helped by the large number of Spartans who turned out to support Jane WADEY, Kerstin WEINER and Nicola HATHERLY for their fiftieth parkruns. 

For the Consolidated Results please click the link 

Spartans at Parkrun!

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