Somerley 10km
GRAHAM Bell rang in the New Year with a fine performance at the Somerley House 10km race near Ringwood.
The New Year's Eve race was organised jointly by Poole Athletics Club and the Wessex Autistic Society, and featured a two lap course on wet and muddy footpaths and gravel tracks around the estate.
The course included five cattle grids. Fortunately, the rain held off for the duration of the race, which was delayed by half an hour because of the number of cars queuing to get onto the estate.
Graham was Stubbington's best placed runner in 28th position with a time of 41min 28sec - the race was won, unsurprisingly, by James Baker from Chichester Runners in a time of 33min 57sec.
Winchester's Kathy Bailey was the top female runner in 38min 50sec.
Jon Leigh (pictured above), who has been putting in the miles lately as part of his London Marathon training, came 65th in 44:56, just ahead of team-mates and fellow marathon trainers Marcus Lee, who placed 79th in 45:40, and Nick Kimber, who was 86th in 46:13.
John Fairhurst, who is also gunning for the London Marathon this April, weighed in with 188th in 52:01, and wife Anne came home in 68 minutes as a total of 505 runners took part.