Woodward - 3rd Senior male at Shepshed

Tony Woodward of local running club, Hermitage Harriers, was the third senior male to finish Sunday’s Shepshed 7 and claimed 4th place overall with a time of 39.31. His success at the event is hot on the heels of his second place finish at Leicester Half Marathon the previous weekend.

Club coach Mark Perry said "Tony has made rapid progress since joining Hermitage Harriers. After a great second place in the Leicester Half Marathon, he has again shown his class this Sunday with an excellent fourth place finish in a strong field at Shepshed."

Tony was delighted with his performance and is already contemplating his training for future races: "It was an enjoyable run on a nice course. I was pleased to knock 4 minutes off last year’s time coming into the race off the back of 2nd place at the Leicester half marathon. I'm now looking forward to working with Mark Perry from www.Sportspredict.co.uk to focus on my London marathon training."

Tony was not the only Harrier flying around the annual race; he was joined by 18 of his teammates. Paul Gregory and Pete Armstrong also finished strongly, both coming well within the top 10% of finishers.

The first female Harrier home was Zoe Sewter in a time of 51.54. Katie Smith and Sarah Kendick were the next female Harriers across the line in a perfectly synchronised time of 56.19.

Tony’s third place finish is just one in a string of successes for Hermitage Harriers so far in 2014. The club has seen both women’s teams promoted to division one in the Leicestershire Road Running League (LRRL) as well as the senior men’s team scooping the LRRL division one champions trophy. Chairman Andy Buck said "our club has been going from strength to strength this year. Our structured sessions on a Tuesday have allowed all our members to push themselves and really see progress in their running. That progress has been further enhanced by healthy competition within our various pace groups. This year has been fantastic for us in so many ways - and we still have the cross country season yet to begin!