The biggest Walton team ever descended at Stoke Park for the Surrey County AA Bruce Judd Cross Country Relay Championships, showing the strength in depth that club is now producing.

Outstanding performances of the day went to the under 17 men’s and women’s teams who secured silver medals.

Ben Marks led the u17 men’s A team off with a situating leg to come home in first place with a 6:32 clocking. Handing over to club captain Ben Fitzpatrick, who had a solid leg with a 6:43 time to keep Walton in the medal positions. It was then left to Ollie Coppellotti to do do what he does best and run smartly and bring the team home in silver medal position with a 6:59 leg behind a formidable AFD team.

The under 17 B team of Tom Jones (7:10), Joshua Taylor (7:12) & Michael Cottrill (7:14) ran superbly to come home in 5th place and the C team of Ben Palmer (7:40), Rueben Leyland (7:34) & Archie Forsyth (7:47) finished in 8th.

The under 17 women’s A team was led off by Charlotte Vaughan who came home with a solid 7:56 time in fourth place. Emma Horsey was next up and committed well and managed to get the team up into third place with a 8:18 clocking. On the last leg Rachel Pharaoh (8:12) had a phenomenal run as she ran down the opposition to bring the team home in second place and secure the silver medal.

In the under 15 age groups the boys A team of Ollie Emment (7:09), Ross Hurst (7:22) and Jack Gemmell (7:17) just fell short of a medal and had to settle for a fifth place finish. The B team came 12th and C team 16th.

The girls A team of Isabella Wiles (8:39), Catherine Blandford (9:34) & Olivia Mensah 8:59) came 13th and the B team came 21st.

For the first time for many years we had a under 13 girls team. Maddie Emment led them off and had an amazing run and was rewarded with a 8:25 clocking. Sian Popham took the second leg (9:18) and Jimena Stynes the third leg (9:33) to bring the team home in 9th place.

Congratulations to all the athletes who competed at Stoke Park!!