Ryde 10
ALL hail Stubbington Green's women who delivered a fantastic second place team finish at the Ryde 10.
Only the big guns of Winchester & District AC were able to out score our fleet-footed ladies who were led home by Bev Lavery.
Winchester's three-strong squad were well in front with 21 points, ironically led by Katherine Jones who is a second-claim runner for Stubbington and who placed second overall in 1hr 6min 41sec behind winner Karen Rushton from Southampton Running Club, who clocked 1:03.32.Our girls scored 32 points and nearest rivals City of Salisbury AC were well adrift in third with 50 points.
Bev was the first Stubby home in seventh spot in a time of 1:10.52 for third in the Vet35 age group, followed by 11th placed Susie MacGregor in 1:12.13 (Vet35, 4th), and Lucy Simmons completed the scoring in 14th spot with a time of 1:12.48.
The Stubbington ladies packed well, and such was the quality of the Greens at the front of the race that Lou James took an excellent 18th spot in 1:14.18. Caroline Street came home in 81st place in 1:37.07 (Vet45,18th).
Bev added, "This is my best time for a long while, it's taken ages to get under 71 mins. And also our team coming 2nd I have medals for the team, myself Susie and Lucy, great to see a good turn out by Stubbington".
The superb performance puts Stubbington ladies well in contention for promotion from Division 2 of the Hampshire Road Race League, with March's Eastleigh 10k next in line.
A total of 308 runners took part in this the sixth round of the Hampshire Road Race League as part of an event organised by Ryde Harriers which started by Ryde Rowing Club.
Winchester & District's Toby Lambert followed up his victory at the Stubbington 10k last month with a fine win on the Isle of Wight. He coasted to victory in a time of 50min 45sec, from Winchester team-mate Tom Payn (51.35) with Southampton Running Club's Andy Morgan-Lee third (54.31).
Zippy Grice tends to enjoy his runs on the island, particularly the fell running weekend in September. He revelled on the roads to be the first Stubby to finish in seventh with a time of 57.18.
Jon Leigh, despite being in the middle of marathon training, will have been delighted with a fantastic time of 1hr 8min 32sec for 70th (Vet40, 27th), and fellow marathon aspirant, Nick Kimber, who ran 16-miles in training the previous day, still had enough energy for a time of 1:12.27 and 98th place (Vet40, 41st).
They were Stubbington's three scorers in the team race, as the Greens held 18th place with rampant Winchester & District dominating the men's team standings.
Mike James was fourth home for Stubbington in 1:14.17 followed by Glen Street with 1:16.54 for 132nd and 22nd in the Vet 50 age group while Malcolm Lavery had one of his steadier races for a time of 1:17.39 and 136th (Vet 40, 57th).