The Spartans are promoted! In the final counting race of the Mid Week series Stevenage based Fairlands Valley Spartans squeezed past Royston Runners to grab second spot and thus promotion to the top division in the Mid Week League.
In the end it couldn’t have been much closer with Watford first with 39 points, Spartans second with 38 and Royston missing out with third and 37.
They did it by coming second in the men’s contest while Royston slipped to fourth. While the Spartans were third in the women’s event, with home team Barnet winning Royston coming two places behind in the men’s race gave FVS the opportunity.
The Trent Park race had a largely off road six miles course. There were 449 runners overall for the combined divisions two and three event and 43 were Spartans.
There were some brilliant Spartan performances including SAMANTHA-PRETTY CONNORS (41:30); ASHLEY JOHNSON (41:45) and CHRISTINE LATHWELL (42:02) all top ten at fourth, fifth and sixth in the women’s race. Samantha won her category (FV35); Ashley was second and Christine was second in the FV45. YUKO GORDON was first woman 65 plus with 49:36.
And the FVS men had four in the top ten. ANDREW PATTERSON (33:45); SIMON FRASER (33:54); ADRIAN BUSOLINI (34:17) and SIMON JACKSON (35:06) were fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth! Andrew was the fastest man over 40 and Simon Jackson third.
As a bonus the club won the veterans championship with 41 points ahead of Watford on 39 and Barnet on 27 – having beaten Watford by one race position on Thursday, just one race position by one runner – but what they are really celebrating is promotion to division one.
Ware 10 miles
Spartan MIKE JEFFS ran an amazing new personal best (PB) of 64 minutes 14 seconds in the challenging Ware ten mile race on Sunday morning. He was fourth senior man, fifth overall.
JIM BROWN defended his 70 plus “title” which he won last year. This time he finished in exactly 100 minutes and exactly four minutes ahead of his nearest rival.
MO WARRILLOW was fourth FV45 in 1:29:30 and ROBERT WRIGHT was another Spartan top ten in his category. He was seventh MV40 in 1:14:07.
DAVID PATTMAN and STEVEN DOBNER came in with 1:22:37 and 1:23:33. There were 220 finishers.
Pos | Cat Pos | Name | Cat | Gun | Chip | Comments | |
5. | 4 | 6087 | Mike JEFFS | MS | 1:04:15 | 1:04:14 | PB |
29. | 7 | 6155 | Robert WRIGHT | MV40 | 1:14:07 | 1:14:03 | |
84. | 25 | 6144 | David PATTMAN | MV40 | 1:22:37 | 1:22:30 | |
90. | 26 | 6143 | Steven DOBNER | MV40 | 1:23:33 | 1:23:25 | |
122. | 4 | 6168 | Mo WARRILLOW | FV45 | 1:29:38 | 1:29:30 | |
178. | 1 | 6094 | Jim BROWN | MV70+ | 1:40:10 | 1:40:00 | 1st MV70 |
7 Peaks in Snowdonia
Spartan JOHN NELMS took part in a national police competition on Saturday joining teams from 30 different forces racing on a 22 mile all off road route over 7 peaks in Snowdonia. With almost 9000 feet of elevation and weather ranging from freezing rain to glorious sunshine, the team finished 21st out of 40 and 2nd in the super veterans’ category (all four team members had to be over 50 on race day).
Parkrun Highlights Saturday 1st July 2023
Congratulations to MATTHEW NEWTON running a parkrun PB of 18:50 at St Albans.
For the Consolidated Results please click the link.
Tables
Women at Trent Park (Division 2 Race) – Thursday 29th June
Tkt | Race | Name | Surname | Time | Div Pos | Cat | Vet | Cat | M/F | Team |
7 | 89 | Samantha | Pretty-Connors | 41:30 | 4 | 1 | 2 | V 35 | F | A |
8 | 92 | Ashley | Johnson | 41:45 | 5 | 2 | 3 | V 35 | F | A |
9 | 94 | Christine | Lathwell* | 42:02 | 6 | 2 | 4 | V 45 | F | A |
27 | 174 | Georgie | Hooper | 46:14 | 17 | 5 | 10 | V 35 | F | A |
30 | 177 | Gabrielle | O’Brien | 46:21 | 19 | S | F | A | ||
35 | 196 | Marie | Colucci | 47:16 | 21 | 6 | 12 | V 45 | F | A |
56 | 239 | Yuko | Gordon | 49:36 | 32 | 1 | 17 | V 65 | F | A |
93 | 326 | Mo | Warrillow | 54:18 | 58 | 14 | 34 | V 45 | F | A |
102 | 341 | Nicola | Andersson | 55:13 | 63 | 16 | 39 | V 45 | F | |
108 | 349 | Chloe | Chapman | 55:51 | 68 | S | F | |||
119 | 365 | Anna | Swanepoel | 57:07 | 74 | 16 | 47 | V 35 | F | |
146 | 411 | Sharon | Crowley | 1:03:08 | 89 | 15 | 58 | V 55 | F | |
156 | 425 | Monica | Smithson | 1:07:00 | 96 | 16 | 64 | V 55 | F | |
170 | 445 | Callie | Chapman | 1:17:22 | 101 | 19 | 69 | V 35 | F | |
171 | 446 | Hazel | Smith | 1:17:22 | 102 | 27 | 70 | V 45 | F |
Men at Trent Park (Division 2 Race) – Thursday 29th June
Ticket | Race | Name | Surname | Time | Div Pos | Cat | Vet | Cat | M/F | Team |
5 | 5 | Andrew | Patterson | 33:45 | 4 | 1 | 1 | V 40 | M | A |
6 | 6 | Simon | Fraser | 33:54 | 5 | S | M | A | ||
7 | 7 | Adrian | Busolini | 34:17 | 6 | S | M | A | ||
12 | 12 | Simon | Jackson | 35:06 | 9 | 3 | 3 | V 40 | M | A |
17 | 17 | Jonathan | Parr | 36:08 | 14 | S | M | A | ||
24 | 24 | Richard | Bate | 37:14 | 19 | 6 | 8 | V 40 | M | A |
39 | 39 | Mike | Jeffs | 38:34 | 25 | S | M | A | ||
41 | 41 | Nick | Gill | 38:39 | 26 | S | M | A | ||
79 | 84 | Adrian | Donnelly | 41:09 | 51 | 20 | 26 | V 40 | M | A |
85 | 93 | Ross | Gallagher | 41:58 | 55 | S | M | A | ||
86 | 96 | Danny | Scanlon | 42:03 | 56 | 23 | 30 | V 40 | M | A |
97 | 110 | Stuart | Archer | 42:47 | 61 | S | M | A | ||
106 | 123 | Robert | Wright | 43:46 | 65 | 27 | 37 | V 40 | M | B |
111 | 130 | Matt | Gifford | 44:08 | 68 | 11 | 40 | V 50 | M | B |
121 | 141 | David | Pattman | 44:42 | 74 | 29 | 44 | V 40 | M | B |
125 | 146 | Alexey | Zherdev | 44:54 | 75 | 30 | 45 | V 40 | M | B |
139 | 163 | Francois | Swanepoel | 45:54 | 84 | 35 | 53 | V 40 | M | B |
148 | 178 | Pete | Smith | 46:22 | 87 | 5 | 56 | V 60 | M | B |
157 | 191 | Craig | Bacon | 46:58 | 90 | 15 | 59 | V 50 | M | B |
187 | 248 | Charlie | Arnold | 50:02 | 109 | 10 | 75 | V 60 | M | B |
233 | 324 | Nick | Kleanthous | 54:12 | 132 | 13 | 94 | V 60 | M | B |
240 | 343 | Matt | Tutton | 55:31 | 138 | S | M | B | ||
252 | 374 | Tim | Robinson | 58:15 | 146 | 29 | 104 | V 50 | M | B |
253 | 376 | John | Harris | 58:33 | 147 | 17 | 105 | V 60 | M | B |
254 | 377 | Jim | Brown | 58:35 | 148 | 6 | 106 | V 70 | M | |
264 | 404 | Michael | O’Keefe | 1:01:21 | 152 | 31 | 109 | V 50 | M | |
270 | 427 | Paul | Holgate | 1:07:37 | 155 | 19 | 112 | V 60 | M | |
273 | 437 | Paul | Jennings | 1:12:40 | 157 | 55 | 114 | V 40 | M |