Firstly, a massive thank you to all of our officials, helpers, and organisers for making the event run so smoothly, your contribution to the day was fantastic and greatly appreciated!

Onto the results! We finished the day 3rd behind Croydon and Newbury, whilst jumping above Hillingdon at the death, in what was a close affair, with multiple athletes going the extra mile and filling events to pick up more points!

We also picked up both Male and Female Athlete of the Match awards picked by the league (each event is scored against the multi-events score tables, the athlete with the highest score for an individual event picks up the award)!!

We had the following athletes making their Walton AC track debuts, providing some great performances and results across their respective events:

• Anri Cohen – Women’s 3000m, 1500m, and 2000m Steeplechase, all A string races and picking up 3rd, 3rd, 2nd place respectively – 7pts
• Kathryn Lovegrove – Frist ever track competition, Womens 3000m and 1500m, both B string races, coming 2nd in both races. Kathryn was also part of our womens 4x400m team, sharing 3rd place with the others – 6(+2)pts
• Nathan Janmohamed – Mens 800m and 1500m, A string for both, taking 4th and 2ndrespectively. Nathan also ran 2nd leg for the 4x400m relay, sharing in the 3rd place points – 4(+2)pts
• Friso Kolff – Mens 1500m B string, 1st place with a 5 second PB! – 4pts
• Clare Ridd – Women’s High Jump, 1st place and first competition in many years – 4pts

We also had some fine displays from the stalwarts of Walton AC, and picking out the highlights was difficult, such was the calibre on display:

• Nicola Bell – Womens Shot, Discus, Hammer, and Javelin – A string for all and placing 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place respectively – 12pts and SAL Woman of the Match with her Javelin mark of 40.02m!
• Sam Mace – Mens A string hammer – 1st place and a big 3.5m PB – 4pts and SAL Man of the Match with his throw of 56.27m!
• Robert A Smith – Mens A string 400mh, 110mh, Long Jump, Triple Jump, and B string High Jump and 2000m Steeplechase – Robert finished in the following positions; 4th, 1st, 4th, 3rd in the A strings, and placed 3rd and 2nd place in the B strings (position respective to the events listed) – 12pts
• Jon Ladley – Mens B string Pole Vault, Long Jump, and Javelin – Jon picked up 1st, 2nd, 2nd – 10pts
• Eva West – Womens B string Shot and Hamer, big PBs in both throws, and placing 1st in both events. Eva was also part of our 4x400m relay team, sharing those points with the others – 8(+2)pts
• Cedelle Agyei-Kyem – Womens A string 100m and 200m. Cedelle finished 2nd place in both races, and also ran the lead leg for the women’s 4x100m relay, which also placed 2nd – 6(+3pts)

We finished the day with some terrific relay running from both Men and Woman quartets. Proving we’re a track family; we had our Womens 4x100m relay team made up of 2 out of the 3 Agyei-Kyem sisters (Cedelle and Jeslyn) and 2 out of our 3 Masters Triplets (Susie and Lizzie) collecting 2nd place and taking a share of the points (3pts)- the girls’ time of 50.3s was inside the previous Waterside Drive stadium record from last year. Our Mens 4x100m team, lead off by WAC and SAL veteran Stuart Channon, handing over to Sean Deane and Max Irvine, both on terrific form having picked up PBs in the sprints earlier in the day, with High Jumper Evan Lee completing the last leg and taking 3rd place (2pts).

Onto our long sprint quartets, kicking things off was our Womens team, with Imogen Burton leading things off. Placed 3rd at this stage; Imogen hands off to Eva West, who runs a superb leg and closes the gap on second place, she passes the baton onto Kathryn Lovegrove, who stepped in at the last minute to ensure we could have a team entered! Kathryn showed great spirit in completing her leg, with the effects of her two long distance event races taking hold, she passes the baton onto Lizzie Amos for the 4th leg, with the team in 4th place behind Hillingdon. Lizzie; showing that race pedigree we all know her for, and fresh from the Masters Championships in Torun, she tore passed the Hillingdon runner, making up a 35m deficit on the backstraight, and ensuring a well-earned 3rd place finish, and providing 2pts to the match total – and more importantly lead to us overtaking Hillingdon who were 1 point in front at this stage!

The men rounded off the day with a superb race, though things got a little dicey at one of the changeovers! Joseph Daws-Twilley kicked things off, running a superb leg given his main discipline are the longer track races. He handed off to Nathan Janmohamed, who himself made the step down from his preferred distances to complete the team. Running a strong leg and keeping pace with the Hillingdon athlete in 2nd, he begins to hand the baton to Evan Lee, who was still thinking of the 4x100m relay change over, as he took the baton incredibly close to the end of the changeover zone! Completing the relay was regular 400m runner Matthew Pharaoh, who improved on his 400m time set earlier in the day, prompted by a late charge from the Newbury 4th leg runner. The relay team finished 3rd and collected 2pts for the total.

Martin Norman, SAL Team Manager