Smith takes top honours
Following his close second place four weeks ago, Marshall Smith (JM15-17) returned to win Maidstone’s parkrun on Saturday. His time of 16min 21secwas also good enough to record the best age-graded score of 82.50%. Neill Wright produced a personal best of 17.47 to finish second and James Ford (JM15-17), third three weeks ago, repeated that performance in 17.53. First-time visitor Tayne McPherson led the ladies home in 21.42, Gill Holmes taking second place in 22.50 and Tracy Dennis (Maidstone Harriers) coming third in 23.25. A total of 313 runners took part. At Malling this week, Tom Collins was first to finish in 17.14 and previous winner Noel Lyons came second in 18.20 which was enough to give him the best age-graded score of 80.45%. Luke Harper, the winner two weeks ago, had to settle for third place this time despite running a PB of 18.40. Tereza Francova was back in the lead for the ladies in 20.59. Hayley Langley, on her first visit to the course, claimed second place in 22.13 and Nichola Evans ran a PB of 22.32 for third in a field of 206 runners. in the shot. Toby Hughes (34.23m) was third in the javelin while Gypsy Nash threw 30.88m in the discus. Alexandria Baker-Jones and her father Allen Jones took part in the Bolnuevo 5k and 10k during a holiday in Spain. Alexandria, 14, ran a personal best 19min 38sec in the 5k to win not only her age group but the overall women’s race. Allen was 10th overall and first V50 in 39.36.