Striders make most of home comforts at Denmead 10k

The Denmead Strider romped to victory at the latest installment of the popular Portsmouth Joggers-organised event.

And that was just one of a host of successes for his outfit as 200 runners battled it out around the undulating country lanes surrounding the village.

Manning held off the challenge of Daniel Bailey to take the title in 34min 16sec.

He opened up an early advantage and continued to extend that over the course of the race, with Victory AC’s Bailey crossing the line in 35.06.

It was Manning’s club-mate Tina Turner who took the women’s crown, as she delivered a time of 45.53.

Another Strider, Paula Hill, finished second in 46.07, with Victory’s Jo Gilholm third in 46.15.

Those performances provided the platform for Striders to collect team success in both the male and female categories on a day to remember.

Pete Collins was the first runner home for host club Portsmouth Joggers as he finished in 38.17, with City of Portsmouth’s Mark Hargreaves 10th in 39.19.

Race director Gill Ripiner was taking on those crucial duties for the first time at this year’s event.

She was given stout support from Portsmouth Joggers clubmates to ensure the race passed off smoothly.

Ripiner was pleased to see the conditions remain decent for those taking part.

And she felt the club’s hard work ensured the race passed off smoothly.

Ripiner said: ‘It went really well and we could be pleased with that. We were a little worried it could get rained out, but the conditions were good for the runners.

‘We’ve had a lot of good feedback from the runners who took part.

‘There has been a few changes and there was less time to prepare for the race.

‘So we were pleased with the amount of entries.

‘Julian came out on top, which wasn’t that surprising and Denmead had a lot of success.

‘Dan Bailey is an up-and-coming youngster who had a good run as well.

‘It was a real team effort from everyone at the club who organised the race and we can be thoroughly happy with that.’

The next race on the Portsmouth Joggers calendar will see runners take part in their charity Pub to Pub event on Thursday, December 27.