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SPARTANS CHAMPIONS NIGHT

The big winners at the Fairlands Valley Spartans presentation evening were JODIE KANTAS, SIMON JACKSON and SAMMIE SUTTON.

Fairlands Valley Spartans running club packed into the Hotel Cromwell, Stevenage on Friday evening for their annual dinner, dance and presentation evening.

Jodie Kantas won the women’s and overall club championships.  Simon Jackson the men’s championship.

Sammie Sutton was Spartan of the Year, most improved female Spartan during 2025 and won the head coach’s award.  She really embedded herself in the Spartan community, supported newer runners, helping other runners to achieve their goals with advice and pacing.  Run leader, run director, smashing out new personal bests, organising kit and driving minibuses.  A very worthy winner.

The chair’s award went to VICKY ARCHER.  Chair TIM ROBINSON said she was someone he couldn’t have done without in 2025.  A great sounding board and extremely pro-active.  Someone who has been active on the committee pretty much from joining the club and taken on additional responsibilities including cross country.

The president’s award is for someone who spends a lot of time volunteering for the club.  Without volunteers we woouldn’t be able to run the club, put on races and events like tonight.  In 2025 she headed up the Spartan Charity of the Year.  The winner was CAROLYN LINSELL.

The most improved male Spartan was PETER SACH whose achievements included cutting his 5K time from 28:34 to 25:51 and his five miles from 57:22 to 43:24.

The Spartans organise a huge range of running activities so there were a huge range of awards including female open short Jodie Kantas; female age graded YUKO GORDON; female open long Jodie Kantas; female age graded long Yuko Gordon; male open short ANDREW PATTERSON; male age graded short Simon Jackson; male open long Simon Jackson and male age graded long CHARLIE ARNOLD.

Fairlands Valley Spartans were formed in 1984 during the huge boom in marathon running in the 1980s and the first year that women were allowed to run an Olympic Marathon.  The first London Marathon had been in 1981.  The club’s long distance championships consists of the best of three from full marathon; 20 miles race; half marathon and ten miles race.  The short distance championships include 10 kilometres; 5 miles; 5 kilometres and 1500 metres.

The raffle on the night raised £1390 for the club’s charity.  Thanks to Tracy Pez, Hazel Smith and Penny Schenkel for their amazing work  The club charity for 2026 is Ehlers-Danlos Support UK – Ehlers-Danlos Support UK.

And they kept the dancing going until midnight.  There probably should have been a special award for DANNY SCANLON.  Definitely an endurance sports club.

Having to pass go 8.75 times !!

Andy and Kerstin Prior decided to take on Battersea Half marathon on Sunday but they didn’t realise it was 8.75 laps of a 2.4 kilometre circuit when they entered.

They said the event was organised through Run UK Events and it was a very slick operation from arrival to departure, with a great medal as well.

The park is almost flat, so for the PB hunters out there is it well worth a road trip.

Kerstin ran a 1:54:03 and finished third V50 lady.  Andy ran a 1:42:10 and finished sixth V50 male with a new personal best (PB).

Both are building towards Spring Marathons and this was one of two key races in the build up.

Dorney Lakes – a 10K splash

Spartan JULIE BUDDEN ran her first 10K race on Saturday.  She “enjoyed” heavy wind and wind as she ran round Dorney Lake so not much shelter.  Julie said it was a flat course, great for a first race, and she knows how she can improve next time.

Parkrun Highlights

It was unpleasant Saturday morning with the woods option closed due to the ground conditions but still 568 ran the 440th Stevenage parkrun.  This was a first Saturday of the month stripes day for Fairlands Valley Spartans and an amazing 53 from the club were running.

They included SUZY HAWKINS who was running her 100th parkrun and wearing the celebration cape which she took round in 26:06.

GAIL MACKIE and ASHLEY SCHOENWETTER were the fastest females from Fairlands.  They both went round in 24:44 and were both top ten women.

JODIE WILSON ran a new person best of 25:53.

62 Spartans were running parkruns.  Those elsewhere included MATTHEW COOKE who ran a Milan parkrun in 23:17.

PositionGender PositionFVS parkrunnerTime
1110Jay PAPA19:48
4134Kirk NDUGU22:08
4942Steve WELLS22:20
6557John HARRIS22:55
8375Martin WOOD23:53
9586Tony RANDFIELD24:15
1069Gail MACKIE24:44
10710Ashley SCHOENWETTER24:44
116104Charlie WHITE25:06
128111Charles ARNOLD25:34
13915Jodie WILSON25:53
14617Suzy HAWKINS26:06
14718Georgie HOOPER26:06
148127Daniel VILJOEN26:07
158134Paul MAGUIRE26:21
169141James SOUTH26:34
208171Matt CLARKE27:46
218179Ryan DUNNING28:05
23036Fiona CLARKE28:16
23438Karen ELLIS28:20
24344Marie COLUCCI28:31
244194Nick GILL28:32
25748Lucy PAUL28:51
25950Alison SHELLEY28:56
260204Nick KLEANTHOUS28:59
268210Matt TUTTON29:19
275214Jim BROWN29:29
280218Stephen SMITHSON29:40
29462Samantha SUTTON30:08
329242Keith HOOKER31:13
33279Sophie PARSONS31:23
359258Steve PLATT32:04
371263Tim ROBINSON32:38
391109Hannah MANTON33:04
394112Penny SCHENKEL33:08
397114Lindsay PATEMAN33:13
401116Caroline CROFT33:21
413124Monica SMITHSON33:44
425281Kartik SHARMA34:18
426282Ahaan SHARMA34:19
428130Callie CHAPMAN34:20
454147Angie KEELING35:26
465298Keith MANTON35:53
473157Pamela VILJOEN36:15
482162Jayne DYMOKE37:02
486307Lloyd DIAS37:39
512181Rebecca RAYNER40:29
521188Julie MANTON41:26
527193Nikki NATION42:54
528194Tracy HAYGARTH42:58
538323Mike CROWLEY45:43
539200Sharon CROWLEY45:44
568332David SCOTT61:56

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