Four members of Striders of Croydon won medals in the annual Surrey Veterans Championships, at Ewell on Saturday.

Their most impressive performance came from Justin Macenhill, who ran a well-judged tactical race to win the over-35 5000 metres.

Staying at the back of the leading group in the early stages, he took the lead before the bell and produced a very fast final lap to win in a new championship best performance of 16 minutes 44.3 seconds.

Club middle-distance coach Alan Dolton won a hat-trick of gold medals in the over-50 400 metres, 800 metres (2.46.7) and 1500 metres (5.35.1).

Dave Hoben won gold in the over-55 3000 metre walk (20.11.7).

Striders’ oldest competitor, Kevin Burnett, came away with five medals (two silver and three bronze). He took silver in the over-65 discus (20.78) and 3000 metre walk (21.24.9), and bronze in the over-65 shot (6.11), javelin (17.49) and hammer (17.58).

Striders also produced some good performances in their first Southern Veterans League match of the season, at Croydon Arena last Monday.

Their men did well to place third, only 19 points behind Epsom and 27 points ahead of Kingston. With a small team, Striders’ women also did well to place fourth of the six competing clubs.

Striders’ only winner was Bob Ewen who won the over-50 2000 metre walk (12.00.1) and later placed second in the over-50 1500 metres (5.21.9).

The 1500 metres was a good event for Striders with Colin Cotton placing second in the over-60 race (5.57.1), Steve Starvis second in the over-35 A race (4.44.5) and Ian Campbell second in the over-35 B race (5.19.0).

Steve Massey placed second in the over-35 400 metres (67.7), while team manager Dave Batten was third in the over-50 race (68.1).

Mick Turner placed second in the over-35 2000 metre walk (12.01.9) with Dave Hoben second in the B race (12.59.7).

Steve Smith was third in the over-50 shot putt (6.68) and Kevin Bannister was third in the over-50 long jump (3.79). Andy Elliott became Striders’ first over-60 high jumper, placing fourth in his event.

Jenny Hemmings made an impressive debut for Striders’ women, setting new club over-45 records in both the 100 metres (16.7) and 400 metres (83.0).

Linda Daniel set a club over-45 discus record of 11.95 metres, placing fourth.

Andrea Jeffries was fourth in the 1500 metres (5.56.3) and Louise Gough was fourth in the 2000 metre walk (15.32.9). Linda, Jenny, Andrea and Louise finished the evening by taking third place in the 4 x 100 metre relay.

On Sunday (31st) Striders will be competing in the Dorking 10-mile road race, which is the third event in this year’s Surrey Road League. Striders’ men are currently in 17th place of the 27 clubs in the league, while their women are 16th.