Cross-country honour for two Gainsborough Striders youngsters

Two of the club's many promising junior members, Molly Creed and Lauren Staves, have earned another feather in the cap for Gainsborough Striders.
JOLLY MOLLY -- youngster Molly Creed is celebrating after being selected to run at a prestigious cross-country event.JOLLY MOLLY -- youngster Molly Creed is celebrating after being selected to run at a prestigious cross-country event.
JOLLY MOLLY -- youngster Molly Creed is celebrating after being selected to run at a prestigious cross-country event.

For the pair have been selected to race in the Anglian Schools Cross-Country Championships, which take place at the Princess Royal Sports Arena in Boston on Saturday.

Invitations are extended only to the top 50 or 60 runners in each age group across the eastern edge of the country, from the Humber down to the Thames, so it is a tremendous achievement to be picked.

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Creed has even more reason to celebrate because she has also been selected to represent Lincolnshire at the UK Inter Counties Cross-Country Championships at Birmingham in March.

Moving much further up the age groups, Wayne Greenfield’s excellent performance at the Ferriby 10-Mile Road Race has lifted him to 19th place in the UK rankings in his veteran 35 age group.

Another Strider, Chris Inman, is currently 40th in the veteran 55 age group after his run in the same race.

On the parkrun front, Cliff Middleton added to his growing collection of course records for his veteran 70 age group when he ran 22.11 minutes at the Lower Hutt event. This means he now has the age-group record at three of the six venues he has attended.

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The other parkrun tourists included Collette Randall who ran 34.56 at Scunthorpe, and Darren Cobb, with a 26.30 time at Hull while at Lincoln, Ronnie Staton and Dale Swinton chalked up personal best (PB) times of 22.06 and 24.36 respectively. Anthony Myles completed his Lincoln run in 30.39.

At the Gainsborough parkrun, Mat Huteson was again the first Strider to finish with his time of 22.45. Joanne Proctor was the only runner to get anywhere near a PB on the muddy course as she finished in 25.51, while Jonathan Jarman clocked 31.39 and Chezney Kelsey just outsprinted his mother Sara up the hilly finish as they completed in 41:32 and 41:47 respectively.

The next training session for the juniors will be at the Trent Valley Academy at 5.30 next Tuesday evening. Seniors need to be at Queen Elizabeth High School at 6.30 pm on Thursday evening.