Todays Runner, Staunton Country Park
It was a perfect spring day which greeted runners as they arrived for the 7th and final Todays Runner race of the season held at Staunton Country Park in Havant on Mother's Day and although a number of Stubbies were concentrating on their marathon training there were still 17 club members with accompanying supporters who enjoyed the fine weather. The sun was shining and conditions were ideal for cross country with the course being much drier than usual for this fixture after the recent fine spell of good weather.
With Andy Simpson's fine form of recent months it seems likely that he will exceeding the speed limit of those eligible to run in these events fairly soon so he capped what will probably be his last race with a fine run to maintain his record of being the first Stubbie home in each of his races, this time coming in a close second behind the winner from Victory making five top three finishes from his 6 races. Club chairman Chris Hall was next to cross the line in 18th place and there was then a gap before the final three scorers finished within 10 places of each other having worked together throughout the race and having their own private battle. Jon Leigh led the pack home in 43rd position, closely followed by Mike Bell (48th) and Nick Crane (53rd). This resulted in the men achieving fifth place on the day.
Other individual results: Paul Hailwood (75th), Keith Whittaker (77th), Mike Clarke (83rd), Andy Lee (91st), John Vose (102nd), Andy Tomlinson (113th), Peter Hutchinson (115th)
For the ladies Sally McGrath was the first to cross the line in 19th position while the second scorer was Rachael Openshaw who had a fine run to finish in 37th place which was an improvement of 15 places on her previous runs. As with the men's section there was a battle for the final scoring position this time between Naomi Crane and ever present Ann Blake with Naomi (44th) just edging out Ann (48th). Jaz Smith was our other lady runner finishing in 54th place. The ladies were 10th team on the day which meant we were 8th overall, a result which left us holding on to third place in the final league table behind the winners Farnham Runners and Basingstoke but it was close with Hart Road Runners closing the gap to just one point!
We had 48 members representing the club over the seven races (33 men and 15 ladies) and in addition to Ann, Nick Crane and Mike Clarke were the others to take part in all seven. The other appearances are as follows:
6 races: Andy Simpson, Mike Bell, Jon Leigh, Jaz Smith
5 races: Mike White, Phil May, Andy Tomlinson, Susie MacGregor
4 races: Andy Lee, Dave Jeffery, Nick Kimber, Paul Hailwood, Penny Forse, Sally McGrath
3 races: Chris Hall, Mike Harper, Peter Hutchinson, Chris Gallagher, Alasdair Ewing, John Vose, Lucy May, Rachael Openshaw
2 races: Tony Smith, Paul Hammond, Neil Jarvis, Tim Sullivan, Simon Carson-Jones, Alan White, Georgie Gair, Nikki Clarke, Tina Chantrey, Margie Pritchard, Naomi Crane
John Simister, Eric Beck, John Blake, Chris Munro, Kevin Wheeler, Colin Elderfield, Gordon Westley, Peter Hailwood, Keith Whittaker, Georgie Wallis, Sharon White and Marina Odey competed in just one race.
Many thanks to you all for your efforts throughout the season and hope to see you all again when the season resumes in October/November. John Tussler.
Photos here - | Tony Smith | Alan Dunk Thanks guys!