Nearly 30 Croydon Harriers were in action at the full and mini versions of the Virgin London marathon on Sunday.

Twenty-four Harriers were representing the borough of Croydon over the mini course - staged over the final three miles of the mrathon route.

Stevie Lawrence grabbed the highest finish by a Croydon runner finishing in 13th in 18 minutes 39 seconds.

Naomi Carty (51st), Atlanta Drummond (87th) and Fiona Walker (124th) produced solid finishes to help the borough to sixth out of 33 in the team competition .

In the U15 boy’s race, Kieron Connor (17:29) shone with a 32nd position, and was backed up by Luke Wakeling (44th, 17:46) and Dane Lawrence (45th, 17:47) as the first three home for the Borough. They helped Croydon to sixth in the team standings.

Rob Spalding and Kartik Iyer clocked the fastest times by Harriers in the morning in 17:13 for 70th and 71st respectively.

In the pick of the other races, Jordan O’Dongo (U13 boys, 50th, 18:47), Saarah Nazaw (U13 girls, 93rd, 21:47) and Abbie Burrett (U15 girls, 72nd, 21:23) were the first Harriers across the line.

The borough’s other teams placed in the middle of the pack with the U13 boys (16th), U17 men (12th), U13 girls (14th) and U15 girls (19th).

In the full race, Neil Aikman (1,718th) was the first Harrier home in three hours, five minutes and 26 seconds and guarantees a place in next year’s race as a result.

Sophie Bates eclipsed her previous best by 10 minutes clocking 3:19.43 for 346th, while Rob Rye (3:31.21) and Mark Maginn (3:37.25) also notched personal bests on their London debuts.

Elsewhere, in the pick of the parkrun action, Alex Penfold bagged a win at Banstead Woods (17:32) and David Brown made it two victories in as many weeks at Riddlesdown in 17:54.

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Kieron Connor

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Stevie Lawrence

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Mark Maginn

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Rob Spalding and Karitk Iyer

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Robert Pye

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Thumbs up: Saarah Nawaz

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Sophie Bates