Striders take team trophy in Scunthorpe 10K

This is awarded to the club with the three highest placed finishers and was comfortably claimed by Mat Huteson [38:09], Wayne Greenfield [38:43] and Will Lansdall [38:52] as they finished in 8th, 9th and 10th places respectively.

The course is not one of the easier ones in the region, with a nasty 50 metres of climbing in the last kilometre, so it is not an easy one on which to claim a PB time. However, no-one appeared to have mentioned this to Craig Williamson as he surged around in 47:18, knocking the best part of two minutes off his previous best.

Despite the warm, humid conditions, three other Striders managed to claim Season’s Best times. Simon Hunt ran 44:52, Gary Atkinson 48:31 and Kevin Housham 54:26. In the age categories Norman Hindley’s 55:09 gave him third place in the V65 class and Kayleigh Hall secured fourth place in the U20 category after finishing in 75:31.

The remaining Strider times came from James Croft [39:57] for 15th place overall, Vikki Hearn [53:42], Emma Housham [80:35] and Sara Kelsey [85;48].

The Sweeting family chose the Scunthorpe parkrun as the ideal venue for the start of the summer holidays. Thomas Sweeting continued his scintillating form with a 43 second improvement in his PB time as he completed his 2 laps in 20;35. For good measure this was also the fifth best time at the venue in the U11 Junior Boys category. His father, David, followed him home in 23:54 with his brother, Rhys, and mother, Helen, not much further back in 26:36.

There were more PBs at the Gainsborough parkrun. Ronnie McWilliam managed another - 18:29 - as he claimed yet another first place finish. Stephen Saxelby sliced 47 seconds off his previous best when he crossed the line after 24;38 and Abigail Hackney improved by 45 seconds to 36:21.

The undoubted star of the day though was Alison Howe. The Couch to 5k graduate carved a massive 2 minutes 9 seconds from her old time as she completed the course in 38:16. Meanwhile, first timers Will Lansdall and Karen Ramsdale finished in 19:32 and 34:48 respectively.

Overall, Striders occupied the first seven finishers’ places, and 9 of the top 12, as they all completed the course in under 25 minutes.

Training for the Juniors will start at 5:30 p.m. at the Gainsborough Academy on Tuesday. The Thursday senior session will begin at 6:30 from Queen Elizabeth High School. The next Tuesday evening senior session will be at Gainsborough Academy at 7:30 pm. New runners, beginners or experienced, will be more than welcome to join in at either session.