Southend Sport
New Benfleet 15 course is no problem for Crispian
3:40pm Friday 27th January 2012
Billericay Strider’s Crispian Bloomfield won the Benfleet 15 for the fifth time on Sunday.
Bloomfield, 34, won in a time of 1 hour, 31 minutes, 37 seconds over a course re-designed this year to avoid the Olympic mountain-biking course.
The new course – which started and finished at Hadleigh Country Park – was hillier than in previous years.
And with a fierce wind blowing into the runners’ faces on their way back to Hadleigh, times were slightly slower than usual.
Nonetheless, Bloomfield finished more than four minutes in front of second placed Mark Newton of Springfield Striders.
The women’s race was won by Sprinfield’s June Allen, 37, winning in a time of 1m 45m 05s, over four minutes ahead of teammate Nikki Brockbank.
Hosts Benfleet Running Club fielded just six runners due to the extra personnel needed to marshal this year, with Chris Leeman (ninth) and Graham Booty (11th) performing well.
Benfleet’s Stefan Cohen suffered a heavy fall three miles into the race, but was picked up very quickly by the emergency services and appeared at the finish to cheer in the final runners after receiving treatment for concussion.
A total of 14 runners from Pitsea Running Club took part with Adam Gordon their first runner home in 88th place 1h 58m 42s, followed by the ever-improving Rachel Flannigan in 139th spot (14th woman) in 2h 6m 40s.
She was closely followed home by Chris Huggins in 2h 10m 44s and Jim Russell in 2h 12m 57s.
Other Pitsea finishers were Tim Shea, Ray Hill (V60), Lorna Pettifer, John Tracey, John Pettifer (V60), Keith Passingham (V60), Karen Phillips, Nicola Gordon, Dennis Jones (V60) and David Davidson.
l Two junior races proceeded the Benfleet 15.
In the 3km race, Christian Gray, of East Essex Tri, dominated from the start to win the under-15 boys title, ahead of team-mate Adam Harley.
Twelve-year-old Niamh Smith, of Basildon AC, won the under-15 girls race, followed by Sinead Clark of Benfleet RC and Jemma Walker of Basildon.
The first three in the under-11 boys were Mitchell Lawrence, Freddie Cowell and Matthew Allen, and the under-11 girls podium finishers were Sophie Rand, Ellie Marie Ashford and Charlotte Brooks.
Luke Bonham and Abigail Morgan were the under-17 winners.
The race was sponsored by Essex & Suffolk Water and Runner’s Edge.