Croydon end 23/24 Surrey XC League campaign on a high

In the Surrey Cross-Country League, Croydon teamed with Striders of Croydon and Stragglers to host the final race of the league at Lloyd Park with over 750 runners taking part across three races. 

The women’s team would finish fifth on the day out of 26 competing second division teams, led home by Penny Oliver who would finish fourth out of 231 athletes. 

She was well supported by Madeleine Armstrong-Plieth (13th,1st W40), Laura Marshall (55th, 8th W50), Ciara Dolby (58th), Millicent Figueira (70th, 2nd U20W), Holly Perks (72nd, 3rd U20W) and Anna Masters (79th). 

The team would finish fourth in the final divisional standings, just one place outside of the promotion places, matching their league position for the 2021/22 season. 

The men’s team would finish third overall on the day out of the ten competing clubs. 

Phil Symonds (7th) and Ben Whyte (9th) both secured top ten finishes, while Brendan Murphy (13th) and Luke Wakeling (17th) were safely inside the top 20. Good packing followed for the remainder of the scoring ten thanks to Ben Chapman (27th), Douglas Aikman (32nd, 3rd overall U20M), David Brown (37th), Scott Miller (43rd), Rob Spalding (45th) and Josh Haasz (76th). A further 14 Croydon athletes took part, with highlights including James Moore (4th M50) and Colin Oxlade (3rd M60) both finishing highly in their age group league standings. 

In the young athletes ranks at West Horsley, nine Croydon Harriers were in action with age group leaders coming in the form of Ernesto Kelly (9th U15B),  Francis Bambury (11th U13B), Kyron-Bailee Burke (13th U17M), Saria Scott-Kurti (38th U13G) and Mary Raki (59th U15G). 

In parkrun action, 28 Croydon Harriers took part on Saturday with Zoha Jetha finishing 1st in the women’s category at Lloyd Park.