THE Forest of Dean Athletic Club’s (FoDAC) men had the fastest team and two finishers in the individual top five in last weekend’s Forest of Dean Autumn half marathon.

The team of Marcus Bennetto, John Hamilton and Andy Raynor won with a combined time of 4hrs 16mins 33secs, almost 20 minutes faster than the Emersons Green club from Bristol

Marcus Bennetto was fourth with a time of 1hr 24mins 17secs and John Hamilton was fifth, just 25 seconds behind in 1hr 24mins 42secs.

The first Forest of Dean woman home was Martha Hamilton with a time of 1hr 48mins 03secs followed by Stefanie Francis in 1hr 59mins 39secs and Emma Parsons in 2hrs: 3mins 33secs. Nicola Hall won the FV 60-plus class with 2hrs 5mins 33secs.

Andy Raynor was just outside the top 10 with his time of 1hr 27mins 34secs securing 11th place. Dave Lowthian finished third in the MV50 category in 1hr 29mins 32secs and Andy Horlick was fifth in the MV40 in 1hr 30mins 54secs.

The club had 31 runners in the field of 744 for the race which is organised by the Rotary Club of the Forest of Dean and starts at the Speech House near Coleford

The overall winner was Richard Purkis of North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club in a time of 1hr 17mins 57secs.

Spirit of Monmouth had three runners with the first home being Martin Blakeborough in 1hr 47mins 6secs followed by Jeremy Creasey in 1hr 53mins 15secs and Josephine Lucking in 2hr 8mins 21secs.

The other FoDAC times were: Mark Blake 1hr 38mins 23secs, Ian Morgan 1hr 43mins 45secs, Patrick Rennison 1hr 45mins 15secs, Chris Munton 1hr 47mins 12secs, Wayne Stewart 1hr 47mins 14secs, Steven Richards 1hr 49mins 21secs, Brian Francis 1hr 49mins 51secs, Rickey Hughes 1hr 54mins 12secs, Andrew Knott 1hr 54mins 35secs, Richard Broad 1hr 58mins 15secs, Anna Freeman 2hrs 3mins 34secs, Valerie Hamilton 2hrs 4mins 11secs, Julie Evans 2hrs 8mins 21secs, Andy Breeze 2hrs 9mins 10secs, Amanda Knott 2hrs 18mins 25secs, David Price 2hrs 20mins 52secs, Eva Goodhead 2hrs 21mins 4secs, Miriam Paris 2hrs 25mins 1sec, Liselette Adams 2hrs 28mins 22secs, Martin Adams 2 hrs 28mins 23secs, Caroline Rickards 2hrs 32mins 47secs and Wendy Lawrence 2hrs 45mins 19secs.

A further 15 FoDAC runners travelled west for the Swansea Bay 10K with Cory Sherwin and Jack Fleet finishing fourth and fifth out of the 86 runners in the junior male class with times of 38mins 49secs and 38mins 56secs respectively.