The Spartan men’s team of SIMON FRASER, TONY RANDFIELD, JOHN HARRIS and MARCUS RIDLEY won the team competition by 175 points to 188 ahead of North Herts Road Runners.
Simon was fourth overall in 1 hour 21 minutes 31 seconds (1:21:31); Tony 40th in 1:38:09; John 47th in 1:39:10 and Marcus 84th in 1:47:50. Tony was first in the men 60 plus category and John Second.
SAM MAIDENS was the fastest female from Spartans beating two hours with 1:59:18. An excellent time as she continues her marathon preparation. LINDA GEORGE was next woman in for the Spartans with 2:21:25.
CHRIS WATLING 1:59:10 also beat two hours. Then came TIM ROBINSON 2:04:14 who felt strong at the start and up to about 5miles. Then he said his legs started protesting but his last three miles were very fast. He was happy to be not too much over two hours
Within the next minute MARTIN JACOB 2:04:32 and MICHAEL O’KEEFE 2:04:55. Followed by JIM BROWN in with 2 hours 13 minutes 50 seconds.
MATTHEW NEWTON was not far behind in 2:14:53 then SHARON CROWLEY completed the Spartan thirteen with 2:33:13.
Presentation Evening
Fairlands Valley Spartans enjoyed themselves at the Cromwell Hotel, Stevenage with their annual presentation evening on Friday evening.
ANDREW PATTERSON was overall male and club champion for 2022 and YUKO GORDON was overall female champion.
CATHY CRAIG was voted Spartan of the Year.
SUZY HAWKINS won the women’s open short contest with a margin of 7% while YUKO GORDON won the age graded competition with 97.4%! The short contest was determined by the best of three out of 1500 metres, 5K, 5 miles and 10K.
The women’s open long was won by HAZEL SMITH 4.2% ahead of WENDY THARANI who was just 0.2% in front of FIONA CLARKE.
Meanwhile the women’s age graded long competition was won by YUKO GORDON with an amazing 99.5. TRICIA HOPPER was second and SHARON CROWLEY third. The long contest was best of three out of 10 miles, half marathon, 20 miles and full marathon (26.2 miles / 42.2 kilometres).
ANDREW PATTERSON won the men’s open short and long open competitions with 79.4% and 79.2%. GRANT RAMSAY was second in the short with 69.8% and STUART ARCHER third with 68.5%. ROSS GALLAGHER was second in the long with 66.6% and STUART ARCHER third with 65.4%.
SIMON JACKSON won both men’s age graded competitions with 84.5% and 84.2%. GEORGIE HOOPER and DEREK CORNELIUS was the most improved Spartans in 2022.
David Scott, Chair of FVS in 2022 presented the Chair’s Award to VICKY ARCHER while the captains’ awards went to NICK KLEANTHOUS and JANE WADEY for their participation in league events.
The President’s Award went to ROGER BIGGS who has co-ordinated the Spartans involvement – runners and volunteers – in the London Marathon for 25 years.
Seville Marathon
The Seville Marathon went well for YUKO GORDON. She finished in 3 hours 27 minutes 18 seconds to win first women 70 plus beating the men’s 70 plus winner by two minutes. Her average pace was better than 5 minutes per kilometre. She said the course was similar to London with a couple of under paths down and up, there was a long flat cobbled path from 38k to 39k which was pain for her to keep her balance but no problem for bigger feet.
Parkrun Saturday 25th February 2023
There was a parkrun PB (personal best) for Nick Gill who finished 5th in 19-07, smashing his previous time by thirty-five seconds.
For all the Parkrun results please click the link – Consolidated Results for 25th February 2023