Emment & Marks lead the way at Mitcham for Walton

On Saturday 11th November the 2nd Surrey League races took place at Nonsuch Park, Mitcham Common and Epsom Downs Racecourse. There were some fantastic performances with wins for the U13 boys and senior men, 2nd places for the U15/U17 boys and the U17 girls, and individual honours for Ollie Emment (winner of U13 boys), Ben Marks (2nd U15/U17 boys) and Duncan Woolmer (3rd, senior men).

First up were the senior ladies at Nonsuch park. It was a 2 lap course over a very wet and muddy 6km. Unfortunately the ladies only had 4 runners, 5 are needed to make a full team but nonetheless the 4 masters athletes gave it their all. The first Walton athlete to finish was Jo Locker in 11th place with a time of 24.27. After Jo was Lizzie, Lucy and Guilaine with times of 26.14, 29.50 and 31.14 respectively.

The junior girls followed, on a course now well and truly slick with mud. Charlotte Vaughan led the team home in 9th place, followed by Darby Begley-Jones in 17th, chased hard by Imogen Burton, with an exceptional run for the U15 athlete for 18th (9th U15). Next home was Rachel Pharaoh (25th) and Sally Mammen completed the team in 65th (39th U15). Bella Wiles and Erin Simper both ran superbly placing 21st and 35th in the U13 race. All three teams were an athlete short, but the U13 and U15 girls still managed 11th and 9th, while the U17 team came a close 2nd to a Woking team which had the full complement of athletes.

Nineteen junior boys travelled to Mitcham for the second Surrey League Cross Country fixture on Saturday.

In the under 13 boys Ollie Emment once again dominated and was a run away winner for his second successive victory. The rest of team packed well with Christopher Vaughan 16th, Harry Tuckman 17th, Ben Shepherd 18th, Alex Histon Allvey 20th, Harvey Ball 22nd, Jacob Gelona 24th and Callum Stewart 45th and were duly rewarded with first place in the team competition.

In the under 15/17 race Ben Marks had another solid run to continue his fine form coming home in second place. Next home was Oliver Coppellotti in 14th, followed by Jack Gemmell 19th, Joshua Taylor 22nd, Rueben Leyland 25th, Ross Hurst 33rd, Michael Cottrill 35th, Edward Dawson 40th, Ben Palmer 47th, Josef Daws-Twilley 51st and Archie Forsyth 52nd. The team finished in second place.

After two fixtures the under 13 Boys are in first place and the under 15/17 Boys are in second place behind Herne Hill.

Another excellent team performance in the senior men’s match on Epsom Downs. Walton followed up their win in the first match with another win and an even bigger winning margin.

First home was Duncan in 3rd place in 28.05, next was Craig 5th, 28.27 then Matt Reed 7th 28.40, Hugo 8th 29.05 then Jon H 10th in 29.20. Next two home were under 20’s Isaac 19th in 29.52 and Matt Pharaoh 24th in 30.12, easily their best performance so far in senior races. The next three were Jon L 35th in 30.31, Chris de Mauny 47th 31.10 and James H in 50th 31.27 to complete our scoring team of 10.

Also finishing were Rob M 31.39, James Bowry 32.48, Rob Smith 33.43, Chris Ness 34.17, David Cowie 36.27 and Jonny Bevan 36.56. Jamie McLoughlin was in our first 10 until he had to drop out injured after the first lap.

Full results are at :
https://surreyleague.org/

The next league matches are:
Women and girls: Wimbledon Common on 13th January
Junior boys: Coulsdon on 13th January
Men: Roundshaw Downs on 2nd December