Pride of Lee Valley! Achurch and Baker are golden oldies

Pride of place went to throwers Simon Achurch and Ken Baker of Nene Valley Harriers.Both struck gold.

Achurch won the Over 40 discus and javelin with throws of 31.94m and 39.54m respectively while Baker took the gold medal in the Over 60 shot putt with a throw of 13.15m.

Achurch also took silver in the hammer with 41.76m.

Other Nene Valley throwers to pick up medals were John Blackwell, Tim Needham and Adam Fidgett.

Blackwell collected Over 65 silver in the weighted throw (12.42m) and bronze in the hammer (29.83m), Needham won bronze in both the over 60 weighted throw (11.08m) and hammer (30.48m), and 35 year-old Fidgett took silver in the discus (27.95m).

Local ladies Claire Smith of Nene Valley and Stacey McGiven of Peterborough AC were silver medallists.

Smith comfortably won silver in the Over 40 200m with a 28:12 clocking and then claimed bronze in the 400m behind McGivern.

McGiven finished in 62.28 and Smith in 64.49. McGiven then went on to finish runner-up in the long jump with 4.89m.

Stamford Strider Simon Fell, who runs for Nene Valley second claim, raced to a silver in the Over 40 3,000m. He finished in 9.52.01.

Also on the track, there was a bronze medal for Sean Reidy of Nene Valley. He was third in the Over 35 60m hurdles with a time of 8.94.

FROSTBITE LEAGUE

Werrington Jogger Paul Halford finished runner-up to Hunts AC’s Dave Connell in the final fixture of this season’s Frostbite League at Huntingdon on Sunday morning.

Welsh international Halford and Connell are both in their 40s and have been winning local races for many years, but their results at Huntingdon marked what is probably the oldest 1-2 in the long history of the league.

The Hunts AC man slogged his way round the muddy five-mile off-road course in 28:24 with Halford 17 seconds further back.

Eye’s Ben Heron came in third and Rob Brownlee led the Nene Valley challenge in fifth place.

Yaxley Runners had three athletes in the top 10 with Simon Hearty fourth, James Mogridge seventh and Matt Launch 10th.

Hunts AC won the final fixture, just pipping Yaxley, and they also won the league overall.

Werrington Joggers finished as runners-up in the final standings, their highest position for some years, and Yaxley were third overall - their best ever placing.

Yaxley’s ladies also starred with Caroline Woods the first female finisher in 33:24 and Gina Crane placing seventh. Lisa Marriott of Ramsey was runner-up ahead of her teammate Michelle Brett in third.

Sarah Caskey, PACTRAC’s former Snowdonia Marathon winner, was ninth with Laura Grimer of Nene Valley 10th.

Nene Valley youngster Owen Wilkinson won the junior race in a photo finish from Riverside’s Callum Nicholson.

Isabelle Wilkins (Hunts) was first girl ahead of Molly Peel (Bourne) and third-placed Flo Brill (PACTRAC).