THE penultimate Hampshire Road Race League event was the Eastleigh 10km, with runners coming from far and wide to compete over a fast, flat course.

Farnham Runners put out a strong men’s squad, with both A and B teams battling for promotion from their respective second divisions.

James Clarke recorded 35mins 55secs to finish 52nd out of over 2000 finishers. Andrew Ellison (36-58) was just one second off third place in the M50 category and came 77th overall, just ahead of seventh M45 Matt Saker (7th M45) in 36-59.

Matt Morgan (38-32) completed the team that came an impressive second in A Division Two. Farnham Runners lie third and all depends on the last race – the Lordshill 10km.

Harvey Wickham headed Farnham’s B?team with 39-28. Mike Anderson (4th M60) recorded 39-49, followed by Neil Ambrose (40-01) and Ali Hardaway (PB 40-29). The team finished second and remain a safe second on aggregate.

For the C team, who remain ninth in their division, Colin Addison clocked 40-39, Chris Cramp 44-03, Kevin Laurie 48-40 (on debut) and Stuart Laurie 56-11. Douglas Blyth (7th M70) managed 1-00-38.

Emma Russ had run the tough South Downs Marathon the previous day (training for a 100km ultra marathon), but clocked 47-27 to lead in the Farnham ladies. Jane Georghiou (2nd W65) recorded 50-15 and Tina Harrison 53-05. The three finished ninth in Division One and Farnham stay eighth on aggregate.

On the same day, Farnham Runners’ Sarah Hill ran the Hampshire Hoppit trail marathon over the North Hampshire Downs and was timed at an incredible 3hrs 3mins, over 23 minutes ahead of the runner-up and just 13 seconds behind the winner.

Stuart Haig was an impressive 12th in 3-23-53, followed by John Hill-Venning (3-36-30) and Charlie Hill-Venning (3-58-30), who came 24th and 54th out of 272 finishers. Previously, Sarah Hill recorded 2-57-48 for the Exeter Marathon.

Linda Tyler was a worthy winner of her category at the South Downs Relays half-marathon, recording 1-54-38 to finish 15th out of 188 ladies.

Jane Georghiou collected a British Masters Athletics Federation age-group silver medal for the 10,000 metres after completing 25 laps on a warm day at Oxford in 53mins 49secs.

• A Farnham Runners team completed the South Downs Way 100-mile relay from Eastbourne to Winchester. The team comprised Matt Dellar, Sarah Hill, Richard Lovejoy, Rob Gilchrist, Colin Addison and James Warren, with Craig Tate-Grimes doing the driving and Tom Dellar providing water at the changeover stations.

To give the day extra spice, Haslemere Border and Farnham Runners were competing for their own trophy. After trailing at the start, Farnham gradually pulled away to record an overall 11-35-26. They came fifth overall, with Haslemere in seventh. Farnham thus took the trophy for the first time.