Stratford athletes taste further success
THERE was more success for Stratford athletes at the Birchfield Young Athletes Open Meeting held at the Pingles Stadium in Nuneaton on Sunday.
Stratford AC had a total of ten juniors competing in the event, with six of them running personal bests or taking part at the distance for the first time.
In the 800m, Sam Plumb lowered his PB, achieved just seven days earlier, from 2:37.61 to 2:37.28, giving him a UK ranking of 23rd in his age group.
Arran Cooper got his official 800m racing off to a fine start, clocking 2:47.06.
Martha Peters lowered her PB by almost four seconds to 2:36.56. Poppy Fox-Rowe ran 2:28.29 to place her 32nd in the UK rankings, while Ellie Deaner smashed her PB by ten seconds in 2:30.57.
In the quickest 1,500m heat of the day, Taylor Stubbins (4:20.28) had the upper hand over clubmate Alex Adams (4:22.74), with the pair coming home second and third respectively.
Also in the 1,500m, Abbi Cooper knocked four seconds off her PB in a time of 5:37.42.
Maddie Linfoot ran 5:22.73 to place her 37th in the UK rankings, while Charly Marshall knocked seven seconds off a PB that she had achieved just seven days earlier.
Her new PB now stands at 5:04.17 and puts her 26th in the UK rankings.
Tempo Winter 10k Series – Race Three
MATT Burdus-Cook put in a stellar performance to take victory in the third race of the Tempo Winter 10k Series.
On another day of socially-distanced racing around the Ilmington hills, beautiful sunshine and increasing warmth greeted the 18 Stratford AC members taking part in the event.
The highlight performance of the day came from Burdus-Cook, who stormed to victory in an impressive time of 36:26.
Andy Cox was next home for the club, clocking 40:21 en route to taking fifth place overall and first in his M45 age category.
He was closely followed by Ade Mason in sixth place, who clocked 41:22.
The trio of Mark Hateley, Ryan Bakewell and James Coy took 13th, 14th and 15th place respectively, all finishing within 30 seconds of each other.
Next home was John Peacock (46:18, 23rd) who comfortably won his M65 age group by some 13 minutes.
Joe Lee (47:14, 25th) was next over the line, followed by John Bettles (47:48) and Graham Hill (48:01), who completed the group of faster Stratford athletes.
The much-improved Rebecca Pridham was delighted to be first Stratford lady home in 57:11 (15th female), an improvement on her time in the previous race of a minute.
Pridham and Simon Curran (57:37, 56th male) seem to have an unofficial competition going on between them, but they have decided to run together at the next race to try and improve their times.
Clare Eynon (58:27, 21st female) and Lara Bakewell (58:29, 22nd female) both achieved their fastest times on the course, with the latter pipping Richard Hartwell (58:37, 58th male) by eight seconds.
Having completed some high-volume training the week before, Kim Lee took it steady and came home in 59:37.
Endurance runner Louise Stewart (1:00.53) was just over the hour mark, while club stalwart John Butler brought home the club in 1:23.01, coming first in the M75 age category.
