A big increase in Fairlands Valley Spartans participation meant the club did much better in race two of the Sunday Cross Country League which was in Trent Park, north London.
This time five of the first seven Spartans were seniors, the 18 to 34 age category, and there were eight Spartans in the first 100 finishers in the race. There were about 400 finishers from nineteen clubs and 37 of the 400 were Spartans.
Two complete Spartan men’s teams, teams of eight, and three complete women’s teams, teams of five, finished having survived Trent Park’s traditional helpings of liquid mud.
SIMON JACKSON led in the Spartan men’s “A” team. He was 16th taking 28 minutes 24 seconds for the 7.5 kilometres event. It was tight between JONATHAN PARR and ADRIAN BUSOLINI but Jonathan got it by nine seconds at 25th in 29:19 while Adrian was 26th in 29:28. New member KELVIN BEYOKU and PAUL HEWETT were racing round together. Kelvin was 52nd in 31:22 and Paul 54th in 31:25.
STUART ARCHER came in with 32:29 and 79th and STEVE WELLS was 88th with 33:08. DANNY SCANLON made it count in the “A” team at 123rd in 34:33.
CHRISTINE LATHWELL was the fastest female from Fairlands at 32 minutes 8 seconds and 74th. Christine was the sixth woman out of 154 in the race. TRACEY JACKSON came in next, 203rd at 38:10, with YUKO GORDON close up behind her, 206th at 38:14. WENDY THARANI came in at 306th with 45:19 and FIONA CLARKE completed the women’s “A” team at 320th with 46:08.
CHLOE CHAPMAN and VICKY ARCHER have improved hugely recently. Chloe was 339th in 47:49 and Vicky 340th also in 47:49. The last time Vicky ran this course, it was before the first lock down, she took over 50 minutes. They were the first two in the women’s “B” team.
(The team results are not yet available from the league organisers).
The next cross country league race will be this Sunday (!) and it’s in Stevenage. It will be three laps of Fairlands Valley south park (the showground end) and starts at 10.30a.m.
Harriet Chases The Moon
Wednesday evening new Spartan HARRIET PACE ran the Chase the Moon 5km at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, finishing in 29 minutes and 12 seconds – a 35 second PB (personal best).
Yuko Won In Spain!
It’s been confirmed that Spartan YUKO GORDON won her age category at the Valencia Marathon with her 3 hours 29 minutes 2 seconds. That’s a big boost to her chances of qualifying for next year’s Age Group World Championships.
Apparently the woman originally declared the winner in the 70 plus category did not complete the full 26.2 miles.
A Track Half
53 laps of Wodson Park running track in Ware saw PAUL HOLGATE complete the Ware Track Half Marathon in 2:24:16.
Parkrun Highlights for Saturday 11th December 2021 – centuries
Three Spartans KEN JUDE, NICK KLEANTHOUS and KAREN PALMER ran their 100th parkruns on Saturday morning. Ken was 101st in 27:25; despite a penguin outfit Nick was 111th in 28:03 while Karen was showing off the century cape and was 179th in 33:44.
ASHLEY JOHNSON ran a new personal best (PB) of 22 minutes 10 seconds and was second woman in the race and 23rd out of the 224 runners. She almost certainly would have got under 22 minutes for the first time if it were not for the intervention of a loose dog at a critical moment.
BARRY OSBORNE won his age category with 22:22 and was 26th in the race. JIM BROWN won his with 27 minutes exactly achieving a target to get in the first hundred with 85th.
New member HARRIET PACE was first junior woman (15 to 17) in 31 minutes 16 seconds.
VICKY ARCHER new parkrun PB of 27:24 and was 100th.
The fastest Spartan was JOHN HARRIS with 21 minutes 2 seconds and 16th place. This week there were 28 Spartans.
Stevenage Parkrun Results where 224 runners took part.
John Harris 21-02 (16th), Ashley Johnson 22-10 (23rd), Barry Osborne 22-22 (26th), Sam Simmons 23-40 (40th), Martin Dudley 23-58 (46th), James McSweeney 24-39 (56th), Lee Pickersgill 26-30 (76th), Jim Brown 27-00 (85th), Vicky Archer 27-24 (100th), Ken Jude 27-25 (101st), Claire Pullen 27-38 (104th), Gail Mackie 27-40 (105th), Nick Kleanthous 28-03 (111th), Fiona Clarke 28-33 (120th), Matt Clarke 28-34 (121st), Chloe Chapman 28-57 (124th), Nicola Andersson 29-41 (133rd), Debbie Blantern 30-05 (139th), Andy Prior 30-19 (145th), Harriet Pace 31-16 (156th), Caroline Croft 21-21 (157th), Tracy Haygarth 32-11 (171st), Karen Palmer 33-44 (179th), Kerstin Weiner 33-45 (181st), Claire Emmerson 33-46 (182nd), Jenny Garrett 33-46 (183rd), Tim Robinson 37-05 (198th) and Helen Harris 51-26 (219th).
Cranbrook County (Devon): Darryl Stevens 37-19 (78th out of 86 runners).
Tables
Full results for all Spartans when there are a lot at an event will be listed below.
All 37 Spartans at the Trent Park cross country:
| Position | Name | Time | Official | Gender | Category | Team |
| 16 | SIMON JACKSON | 28:23 | 28:24 | M | 40 | MA |
| 25 | JONATHAN PARR | 29:24 | 29:19 | M | S | MA |
| 26 | ADRIAN BUSOLINI | 29:27 | 29:28 | M | S | MA |
| 52 | KELVIN BEYOKU | 31:21 | 31:22 | M | S | MA |
| 54 | PAUL HEWETT | 31:22 | 31:25 | M | S | MA |
| 74 | CHRIS LATHWELL | 32:07 | 32:08 | F | 45 | FA |
| 79 | STUART ARCHER | 32:49 | 32:29 | M | S | MA |
| 88 | STEVE WELLS | 33:10 | 33:08 | M | 60 | MA |
| 123 | DANNY SCANLON | 34:32 | 34:33 | M | 40 | MA |
| 138 | PETE SMITH | 35:16 | 35:16 | M | 50 | MB |
| 142 | THOMAS SAUKA | 35:31 | 35:32 | M | 40 | MB |
| 150 | JOHN HARRIS | 35:46 | 35:47 | M | 50 | MB |
| 203 | TRACEY JACKSON | 38:07 | 38:10 | F | 45 | FA |
| 206 | YUKO GORDON | 38:14 | 38:14 | F | 65 | FA |
| 255 | MATT CLARKE | 41:15 | 41:16 | M | 40 | MB |
| 266 | LUKE GURNEY | 41:20 | 41:31 | M | S | MB |
| 292 | ANDY JAY | 43:20 | 43:27 | M | 50 | MB |
| 298 | TIM ROBINSON | 44:29 | 44:30 | M | 50 | MB |
| 306 | WENDY THARANI | 45:14 | 45:19 | F | 45 | FA |
| 320 | FIONA CLARKE | 45:57 | 46:08 | F | 35 | FA |
| 329 | NICK KLEANTHOUS | 46:52 | 46:56 | M | 50 | MB |
| 338 | MARK FREEMAN | (47:31) | 47:47 | M | 60 | |
| 339 | CHLOE CHAPMAN | 47:35 | 47:49 | F | S | FB |
| 340 | VICKY ARCHER | 47:38 | 47:49 | F | 35 | FB |
| 357 | MARIAN MORLEY | 49:51 | 49:53 | F | 55 | FB |
| 358 | TAHER THARANI | 50:02 | 50:04 | M | 50 | |
| 366 | JIM BROWN | 51:07 | 51:11 | M | 60 | |
| 371 | LIZ CROWLEY | 52:06 | 52:40 | F | S | FB |
| 375 | MICHAEL O’KEEFE | 53:41 | 53:45 | M | 50 | |
| 381 | SHARON CROWLEY | 55:45 | 56:00 | F | 55 | FB |
| 385 | JONATHAN JONES | 56:21 | 56:29 | M | 50 | |
| 386 | CATHY CRAIG | 56:22 | 56:33 | F | 65 | FC |
| 389 | JUDY KING | 57:48 | 57:55 | F | 55 | FC |
| 390 | MONICA SMITHSON | (58:48) | 58:48 | F | 55 | FC |
| 391 | JANE WHITROW | 59:48 | 59:26 | F | 55 | FC |
| 396 | SALLY PHILLIPS | 1:00:38 | 1:02:39 | F | 55 | FC |
| 397 | STEPH BIGGAR | 1:02:30 | 1:02:50 | F | 35 |