Savery celebrating back-to-back wins at the Warwick Half Marathon

Leamington C&ACs Andrew Savery grits his teeth on the final stretch to the finish at the Warwick Half Marathon. Picture: Morris Troughton. MHLC-23-03-14 Warwick Half Mar24

The event started out from Warwick Racecourse, taking in a scenic but undulating loop of the Warwickshire countryside with a strong breeze making exposed sections along Rouncil Lane particularly tough.

Savery led from the off, crossing the line in 1hr 12min 24sec, down 19 seconds on last year’s time.

Kenilworth Runners provided 33 finishers with soon-to-be captain Stephen Page, fourth in 1:17:16.

Imogen Peace is starting to show some real form and had a tremendous race, finishing 35th overall and second lady in 1:25:41.

Peace was just 17 seconds behind lead woman Kath Gundersen, formerly of Leamington C&AC and now with Woodford Green Essex Ladies, who clocked 1:25:24.

Kenilworth’s Wendy Daniels was third lady in 1:28:29.

Other noticeable Kenilworth performances came from James Richardson in 12th position who took nearly five minutes off his PB, Alex Atkinson in 14th position and first V45 and Chris Simkiss who finished 18th in 1:23:48, an improvement of more than four minutes.

There were also PBs for Neil Sheward (1:28:03), Lucy Boucher-Heather (1:41:07), Samantha Starvis (1:46:43) and David Brown (1:46:59).

Spa Striders were also out in force with Andrew Graham 29th overall in 1:25:02, closely followed by Tim Down (34th) in 1:25:25.

Two other Striders dipped under 1:30, with Hartwig Busch 58th in 1:28:28 and Dewi Williams 74th in 1:29:19.

There was also some strong running from Striders ladies with Charlotte Everard finishing sixth female in 1:31:29 and taking four minutes off her PB.

She was closely followed by Jo Kirby (7th female) in 1:31:49 and Clare Hinton (11th female) in 1:33:41.

Selected others (Kenilworth Runners unless stated): 65, Roger Homes (1:28:51); 96, Richard Whiting (1:30:49); 111, Richard Hales (1:32:02); 129, Richard Sykes (Spa Striders, 1:32:41); 132, Rachael Siggers (1:33:01); 179, Neil Smith (1:35:02); 193, Gary Morgan (1:35:36); 170, Owen Webb (1:34:42); 201, Nathan Green (1:36:06); 202, Vassilis Andreoulakis (1:36:42); 235, Ben Parkinson (Spa Striders, 1:37:00); 237, Andrew Roach (Spa Striders, 1:37:03); 282, Sabra Boldini (1:38:46); 283, Rob Willis (1:39:07); 284, Stef Lunn (1:39:10); 319, Nadine Lee (Spa Striders, 1:40:02); 344, Barry Elkington (1:40:44); 402, Justine Willis (1:42:42); 686, Mari-Carmen Herranz-Sanchez (1:51:18); 761, Ros Brooks (1:52:13); 917, Sheila Kennedy (1:57:29); 985, Simon Mottershead (1:57:53); 1,177, Ivan Wilson (2:03:35); 1,224, Chris Hart (2:04:21); 1,195, Paul Buchan (2:05:07); 1,423, Lawrence Copeland (2:11:09); 1,424, Sandra Stokes (Spa Striders, 2:11:11). 1,633, Arthur Smith (2:20:24)