by Ken Bray

WOODFORD had superb representation at the Adidas Mini London Marathon on Sunday.

The race incorporated the elite Regional race plus the London Boroughs race. Club athletes were extremely prominent in the teams representing the local boroughs of Waltham Forest and Redbridge with top performer, as so often since Christmas, being Ronnie Sparke, who won the very high-quality Regional Boys 15-17 race.

The Regional and Boroughs races are run as one, with the results being separated out afterwards.

The Boys 15-17 race featured three of Woodford's top youngsters. Ronnie Sparke, representing the East region, was not the only member of the 2009 Great Britain U20 Cross Country team to compete, his teammate Jonny Hay toeing the line too, as well as Wales' Dewi Griffiths and England's Paul Thompson.

But Sparke got the better of everyone in a sprint finish to win the title won not many years back by Mo Farah. His time was 14.20.

Representing London, Alex Cornwell was 16th in 14.53 and Omar Mansour 26th in 15.16.

In the Boroughs race, this earned Cornwell (Redbridge) an excellent 2nd place and Mansour (Waltham Forest) 4th.

The triumphant Waltham Forest team also had Rob Meadows (11th.) and Chris Sear (40th.) while 6th-placed Redbridge also had club members Darren Southcott (15th.), Liam Blaikie (16th.) and Lorcan Murphy (99th).

The Redbridge team that finished 9th in the Boroughs 15-17 Girls event was heavily WGEL-based with Becky Hewitt (19th), Claudia Conway (25th), Kate Stockings (49th), Eleanor Flaherty (50th) and Suna Yokes (123rd).

Similarly the Redbridge team that finished runners-up in the Boroughs 13-14 Girls race also relied heavily on Woodford, with Holly Bedeau 23rd, Amy Doyle 25th, Ellie Foster 26th and Georgina Ferrari 82nd.

In the Boys 13-14 Boroughs race, James Stockings finished an excellent 8th for 14th-placed Redbridge, with young Sam Robinson 177th in the same team.