The Rugby & Northampton AC men’s club cross country champion Chris Perez made his first appearance in this year’s East Midlands Grand Prix and finished in a magnificent fourth place in the Harborough 5 mile race.
In his first competitive outing since February after an injury lay-off, Perez completed the sixth race in the series with a time of 27 mins 9 secs.
After leading the club home at Silverstone and Blisworth, Chris Lamb was the second man on this occasion in 13th spot with 28.13 and John Gercs came third in the M40 category exactly half-a-minute behind in 16th position.
Completing the senior men’s team, which finished in third place, was Alan Mould and he also claimed second spot in the M50 race with his fastest five-miler of the series in 32.20. Just two seconds behind Mould was Pete Thomas, who was third in the same age group.
Already confirmed as the series winner in her age category, Angela Copson maintained her winning streak in the F65 section to lead home R&N in 12th place on 34.15.
The ladies team members were duplicated from Banbury the previous week with Kate Williams crossing the line in 24th for 36.17 (F50 third) and Nikki Turner in 45th on 39.38 ( F40 13th).
This put the senior women in fifth on the night and the veterans in fourth.
Heather Fiddament-Harris made it victory number four in the F60 event with 44.02 and Valerie Cross completed her fifth race in the same age group to finish third in 52.02.
Lack leads home strong Wootton turnout at Harborough
Richard Lack led home a good turnout of Wootton Road Runners at a humid Harborough 5 race.
Lack came home in 29mins 32secs, followed by the second part of ‘Team Richard’ with Richard Fowler being the only other Wootton runner to finish under the 30-minute barrier in 29.56.
Not far behind was James Armstrong at 30.04 with the two M45s, Tony Baross and Graham Hollowell, following in 31.36 and 32.55 respectively. The first Wootton lady to finish was Barbara Willison in 34.10 followed by Jo Gardener on 35.00 with Frances Cooper a couple of minutes behind at 37.00.
Overall, Wootton ladies finished second in senior lady and third in veteran lady and the men’s veteran team finished second.
Other Wootton RR results: Michael Carrea 33:30:00, Phil Stansfield 34:00:00, Idzi Grzegorz 34:53:00, Niall Gardiner 35:30:00, Stephen Young 35:58:00, Lewis Todd 36:26:00, Tony Swindells 37:32:00, Adrian Sell 37:49:00, Antoinette Kiely 38:02:00, Helen Van Uem 38:06:00, Carrie Carruthers 38:36:00, Michael Dowdy 39:07:00, Richard Baldwin 39:27:00, David Davies 39:35:00, Ian Townshend 39:53:00, Diane Rogers 40:11:00, Hannah Groves 41:25:00, Hayley Rogers 42:09:00, Bell Hemsley 42:11:00, Katherine Smith 42:14:00, Estelle Young 42:24:00, Janet Mitchell 44:00:00, Richard Box 48:50:00, Jo Brooker 48:52:00, Dana Byford 49:59:00