Border League XC at Lightwater

BORDER LEAGUE X-C at LIGHTWATER – RACE REPORT

Sunday saw 23 of our young athletes travel to Lightwater to represent the club at its first participation in the Border League, against other athletics clubs and schools from Berkshire, Surrey & Hampshire. At relatively short notice, it was fantastic to have representation at U9, U11 and U13 in both the boys’ and girls’ races which bodes well for the future.

In addition to some great individual performances from some of our more experienced young runners, real courage was shown by newcomers to the sport not afraid to step outside of their comfort zone. Congratulations to each and every one of them.

There were many notable performances. Olanna Brown (U9) finished a good 19th place in the 1390m race, having run to registration barely two minutes before the start, just in time to have her number pinned to a vest and then line up alongside the other 60 competitors. Also, Katie de Gregorio (U11), with the girl’s race having already run, having the guts and not hesitating to run (and run well) in the longer 2050m boy’s race.

Sticking with the U11 boys’ team, with over 100 runners in the field, the Walton team included Jake Meyburgh, Alexander Wigmore, Samuel Shepherd, Joshua Cheyne, Joseph Sandri Durban, Mason Pollard-Day, Alex Grantham and Ethan Luiz. The team finished a very respectable 6th of 14 teams overall.

Particularly strong performances by both Alexander (18th) and Samuel (23rd), both finishing in the top quarter of the field, but the individual performance of the day must go to Jake Meyburgh’s excellent 4th place run in 7 mins 39 seconds.

The equally competitive U11 girls’ race was run over 1630m. What a scoring team of four Walton fielded, with Poppy Scott (13th) leading Lottie Paul (32nd), Sabrina Coppola Johansen (35th) and Rachel Riedlinger (45th), all finishing in the top half of the field, to bring the team back in a credit 4th position overall.

Lastly, a great showing by the four boys running Walton into 4th position of 11 teams overall in the U13 boys race, run over 3040m. Harry Currie (13th), a great run and first back for the team in 12 mins 14 seconds, with other strong running displayed by Lucas Pollock-Williams (24th), Jack Dowling (31st) and James Wigmore (41st)

  • The next Border League will be at Guildford Stoke Park on Sunday 2nd February 2020.

Walton AC Academy & Satellite team

Photo: K Scott