Sunny conditions great competitors at Shouldham Warren
The third event in the Ryston Runners Cross Country Grand Prix series took place in sunny conditions in Shouldham Warren on Sunday, attracting the usual good crowd of athletes and the traditional visit from Santa.
Over the 6.5 kilometre course, seasonal winners for the host club came in the form of Toby Leigh Heyton (U17M), Nic Bensley (M45), Jacky Walsingham (W45), and Liz Blakie (W60).
For Bensley this made it three wins in a row in his age group, meaning something pretty drastic will now have to happen for him not to turn out overall winner of this category over the whole 2018/19 season.
Martin Sheldrick was placed second to Bensley in the M45s, and Gill Hart made it a Ryston one-two also in the W60 category.
Karen Smith and Sue Smith took second and third in the W50 age group, a pattern replicated by Digby Frammingham and Tony Savage in the M55s.
Stewart Robins took third in the M50s, as did the delighted Wendy Farquhar in the W55s.
Rosie Booth was placed second in the U17W, Jessica Mason was third senior woman and Callum Stanforth third senior man.
In the junior races, Jannis Koulman took second place in the U15B category, while third place awards were taken home by Ackara Black (U11B), Oakley Took (U13B) and Evie Goldring (U13G).
Other Ryston places were as follows:
U11B: 6 William Saunders; 8 Sam Doughty; 9 Dylan Whitehouse
U11G: 7 Ella Goldring; 13 Molly Skerritt; 17 Tibby Ellis.
U17B: 4 Bailey Took; 5 Owen Burge.
SM: 5 Ben Keeley; 6 Andrew Simmonds; 10 Ben Foxwell; 12 Kevin Farquhar; 13 Kevin Took.
M40: 4 Dan Pratt.
W45: 4 Judith Berry.
M50: 5 Martin Ive; 9 Barry Smith; 11 Mark Crook.
M60: 4 Kevin Howlett; 5 Paul Firmage; 6 Christopher Milnes.
In Guadix, Andalucía, in southern Spain, Cath Duhig took part in the XIV Memorial Manuel Alcalde, the third in the Spanish early winter 5k racewalking series.
The event featured more European and World Champions than you could shake a stick at.
Unaware that there were category awards, Duhig was delighted to discover she had won the W60 age group, and even more delighted to find that the time on her own watch was somewhat slower than the official race time and that she had been credited with 30.43 – her second fastest time for the distance this year.
Elsewhere, Ryston’s Keith Morris completed the Half Marathon des Sables in the Inca Desert, Peru, where 25 different countries had entrants.
Morris came sixth in his age group out of around 300 entrants who covered 120 kms (75 miles) over four days.
The temperature was hot and the course over sand dunes.
