Snowy times at run

Nine Stevenage and North Herts athletes were at the Eastern Region Cross-Country Championships at Peterborough on Sunday.

The course had testing conditions after snow and rain during the previous days and was flooded in parts.

Overall numbers in the races were disappointing for a championships but all the local athletes put in good solid performances.

Sarah Pike was the sole under-13 girl, finishing eighth in 13:47.

The under-15 girls had three athletes - Chloe Vernon-Hamilton finished fifth in 17:12, Louise O'Connell was 17th in 19:39 and Danielle Naylor 22nd in 20:25.

Luke Langley was again the sole under-15 boy and finished 12th in 16:39.

In the under-17 race, Louis Naylor was fifth in 23:50 and Callum McKechnie seventh in 24:57.

Two more fifth placers were under-20 Dan Poulton in 30:22 for 8k and Adam Searle in the senior men's race in 45:57 over 12k - four gruelling 3k laps.

All the athletes are preparing for the final Chiltern League race this weekend at Wing when the club have a number of individual and team medal places at stake.

While many Fairlands Valley Spartans were training locally, four went about it the hard way and competed in the Stamford Valentine's 30k road race.

This was gruelling hills all the way on an 18.6mile course in Leicestershire and Rutland.

Jim Brown ran more than five minutes faster than his time last year to finish 75th in 2-09:46.

Times: Jim Brown 2-09:46, Gerry McCabe 2-27:33, Rob Shaw 2-39:42, Richard Sidlin 2-58:47.

Two more Spartans ran the Punchbowl 30-mile event on Sunday.

This was an off-road event based on the Devil's Punchbowl in Surrey.

The course was a mixture of trails, tracks, fields, minor roads and hills and it was quite muddy with a lot of surface water.

Mike Newbitt finished in 6-14:25 and Roger Biggs 6-50:03.