Athletics round-up: Respects paid on Remembrance Sunday

Stevenage Striders took their red diamonds to Walton on Thames on Sunday for the annual Remembrance Sunday Marathon and Half Marathon.

The event is built around a two-minute silence at 11am, with runners stopping to pay their respects wherever they may be on the course.

Nineteen Striders took on the half marathon distance, with a number beating their best times.

Danny Alden finished an impressive 10th overall out of a field of 195 with a time of one hour 39 minutes 10 seconds.

Glenn Cuzner, Abdullah Athar and Martin Scales all ran the full marathon along with 139 others and all finished inside the top 20 in seventh, ninth and 18th respectively.

Fairlands Valley Spartans paid their respects at Carver Barracks near Saffron Walden.

Andrew Patterson clocked 1:12:29 for the Remembrance Run Half Marathon, a new PB, while there was also a fastest ever run for Steven Dobner at the same venue as he finished the 10k in 43:58, just less than a minute ahead of David Pattman.

Yuko Gordon finished fifth in the W70 race at the Masters Cross Country International Championships in Dublin, helping England to a team silver.

North Herts Road Runners' Andrew Leach was also at the event and came third in the MV55 race. the top three separated by just 11 seconds.

Other Squirrels were in action both home and away.

One of the away runs was Dan Mallett who ran the Athens Marathon, starting at 5am in the historic town that gave its name to the event.

The hilly course took its toll but he finished in 4:52:43.

The home leg was taken up by Kris Whitmore who ran the inaugural Beer Hunter Challenge in Hitchin.

The race took place over three stages, firstly a 2km sprint race to the first pub of the day with the second a 4km hill stage to the Red Lion in Preston.

The final stage was a 10km endurance cross-country back to Hitchin.

Whitmore was consistently second but to three different runners which was enough to give him the overall victory.