At the start of the week St Albans Striders and Athletics club joined forces at the third match of the Masters track and field competition held at the Lee Valley stadium. Numerous personal bests were achieved which helped to secure second place for the women’s team and third place for the men’s team. Jennifer Finlay had an incredible debut, winning the 100m and 400m and the women’s team dominated the 1,500m taking 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th places as well as winning the medley relay. The men also put in strong performances. Daniel Kerry came 1st in the discus and then ran the 100m for the first time only to find himself the fastest St Albans male. St Albans men presented a similar sea of yellow and blue vests in the 1,500m with Paul Adams finishing in first place.

On Thursday the Striders entered 15 teams out of a total of 118 at the Fairlands Valley 3k road relays, with a top three place achieved in four of the six competition categories. The women’s team (Megan Walker, Hollie Ryder, Freya Weddell and Lucy Waterlow) placed first, the men’s team (Alexander McDonald, Stefano Federici, Archie Marshall, Jonny Pennell) and the men’s vets team (Steve Buckle, Jim King, Paul Stack and Jonathan Scott) both placed second and the mixed vet team (Colin Braybook, Jenny Maginley, Helen Cartlidge and Steve Scorer) placed third. Top 10 places based on individual times were achieved by Megan Walker (3rd), Lucy Waterlow (9th) and Jonny Pennell (7th). Huge appreciation goes to the road captains Jenny Maginley and Stefano Federici for their significant efforts in managing the team entries and helping to co-ordinate the event.

Over the weekend Andrew Mckillop finished in 3rd place at the Bedford Blues half marathon in a time of 1:21:55 and Robin Newby ran the Castle Howard trail half marathon in challenging weather conditions in a time of 1:48:36.