THERE were some impressive performances from Stratford Athletic Club runners at the Massey Ferguson Tractor 10k.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Massey Ferguson Runners Club, the club’s annual Easter race was held on a new fast, flat and traffic-free three-lap 10k course at the NAEC in Stoneleigh.
It was the first race in this year’s Warwickshire Road Race League and for the 15 Stratford AC members it was also an opportunity for them to earn points in the club’s Grand Prix competition.
First home for the club, having run a superbly paced race, was Peter Sugden (141st – 45.38). Just 70 seconds separated the next four Stratford runners who were led home by David Jones (148th – 45.59).
David was leading Peter for the first half of the race before being overtaken. David finished 2nd in his age group. Just 30 seconds behind him was Roger Wilson (156th – 46.29) who was 1st M75 to finish, followed by Phil Brennan (167th – 46.50) and 1st M70 to finish.
Luke Watkins (171st – 47.09) is coming back into form, having not raced a lot recently. Luke, like Phil, recorded a season’s best time.
Next to finish was Annie Cox (206th – 49.45) who had a wonderful race to scoop the ladies’ U20 prize.
Dave Maundrell (214th – 50.50) had another consistent race and was followed by Ruth Calderbank (218th – 51.19) who ran magnificently and was rewarded with the FV65 prize, also recording a season’s best time.
Another runner to record a season’s best was Andy Turner (260th – 53.42). Next were four ladies who all recorded personal best times for this distance – a fabulous achievement by all of them.
First of these was Jan McLure (265th – 53.52), followed by Bev Brigden (275th – 54.42), Nicola Reynolds (314th – 58.19) and Philippa Abrams (320th – 59.01).
The final Stratford runner to finish, with a wonderful smile on her face, was Tash Watkins (336th – 1:10.50). Some 365 runners completed the race, which was won by Callum Hanlon in 33.21 and the first lady to finish, in 33rd place, was Amanda Deavy in 38.47.
THE FAST, flat and one-lap Carterton 5k race around the West Oxfordshire town was held on a gloriously sunny Easter Sunday.
It was a wonderful opportunity for Stratford’s very own Adams Family to compete in a race together.
Family honours on the day went to Alex Adams, who finished second in a time of 20.08. In 8th place was mum Emily in a time of 21.40, followed by the ever-improving Oliver in a personal best time of 23.20.
FOLLOWING hot on the heels of the announcement that fellow club member Kate Wright had been selected to represent England in October’s Chester Marathon, came the news Kate Sergent has also been accorded this honour following her 3rd placed finish in her age group at the recent Manchester Marathon.
This is a much-deserved reward for Kate, who is currently ranked 5th in the UK for the marathon in her age group.
STRATFORD AC’s Kate Wright was in brilliant form in the recent local Parkrun.
Alongside all the individual performances in all of the Parkruns held in the UK is an age grade. All the Parkruns use age grading to allow athletes to compare results as it takes the athlete’s time and uses the world record time for their gender and age to produce a grade (a percentage).
This grade allows athletes to compare their personal performance against other runners – taking into account age and gender – the higher the grade the better the performance.
On Saturday, Kate’s superb time of 17.54 recorded the highest % score in the whole of the UK, with the staggering figure of 97.3 %.
Indeed, Stratford runners always feature prominently in the age range categories, at both ends of the age spectrum.
Second to Kate on Saturday, in age grade % terms, was Georgie Campbell in the JW 11-14 category. Her PB time of 18.24 gave her an 85.47 % figure.
Four of the top six age grade performers at the weekend’s local run were from Stratford AC. Kate is currently ranked 2nd in her age group and 3rd on the all-time list and fellow club runner Roger Wilson is 1st in his age group for 2017 and 2nd on the all-time list.
There must have been something in the air on Saturday as 16 of the 27 SAC runners recorded PBs and the course record was also broken.
Reports compiled by David Jones.
