SILVER MEDALS FOR WALTON AT SURREY COUNTY CROSS COUNTRY RELAYS

The Surrey County cross country relays took place at Stoke Park in Guildford on Saturday, over a 2:5km course. The event is named after former Walton Life Member, Bruce Judd who organised this fixture for many years.

Walton had teams in four out of the six age groups and came away with three team silvers.

The day got off to a great start with the under 13 boys A team of Ollie Emment (7:33) Finn Punton (8:12) and Christopher Vaughan (8:06) taking team silver, with Ollie continuing his fine early season form running the days fastest leg.

Not to be outdone the under 17 men posed a real threat for medals and that was evident from the start as Ben Fitzpatrick stormed round the 2:5 course in 6:46 and came home in first place. Handing over to Ben Marks, Ben ran a superb leg coming home in 6:47, just behind a formidable AFD team. Ben then handed over to Ollie Coppellotti (7:21) who maintained good form and brought the team home in second place for another team silver.

The under 17 women were also in with a shout for medals and the trio of Rachel Pharaoh (8:26) Charlotte Vaughan (8:00) and Darby Begley-Jones (8:20) did themselves proud and were rewarded with team silver behind a strong Guildford team.

Other team performances:
The under 13 boys B team of Alex Histon Allvey (8:25) Josh Punton (8:27) and Jacob Gelona (8:50) came 11th and the incomplete C team only had two athletes, but both boys committed themselves well Harvey Ball (8:48) and Callum Stewart (9:46).

The under 15 boys A team Tom Jones (7:37) Rueben Leyland (7:51) and Jack Gemmell (7:32) came 8th and the B team of Ross Hurst (7:29) Archie Forsyth (8:12) and Ben Palmer (8:04) came 12th. Josef Daws-Twilley (8:07) ran first leg for the incomplete C team.

The under 17 B team of Joshua Taylor (7:33) Michael Cottrill (7:46) and Josef Hubbard (8:39) came 9th.

Huge congratulations to all the athletes, especially to those having their first taste of a Surrey Championships!

There were some great performances across all leagues at Saturday’s first edition of the Surrey Cross Country League 2017/2018! This league is one of the premier leagues in the country, and there were winning performances from the U13 boys’ and Senior men’s teams.

Special mention should go to Ollie Emment for his outstanding run in winning the Under 13 boys race and leading the under 13 boys to first place in the team competition.
In the Under 15/17 age group, club captain Ben Marks led way home and in second place and not too far behind Ben Fitzpatrick in third, great start to their cross country campaign as they both strive for English Schools selection later on in the season, first under 15 boy home was Tom Jones.  All the boys did themselves proud and packed really well and came a deserved second in the team competition, just eight points behind a very strong South London Harriers team.

In the girls races, the U17 team placed 2nd, only a single point behind Guildford and Godalming with Charlotte Vaughan leading the team home in 5th, backed up by Rachel Pharaoh (8th) and Darby Begley-Jones (11th). In the same, race, U15s Lani Cardwell (27th), Eloise Williams (48th) and Sally Mammen (50th) were a strong 9th on a tough course. The U13 team suffered from only having two athletes competing, with Bella Wiles 15th and Erin Simper 34th, still managing an excellent 12th place.

The women were also at Reigate where Jo Locker finished 8th and Lizzie Amos 44th.

The men were at Wimbledon where an excellent turnout saw Walton win the Division 3 match. First home was Duncan Woolmer, 2nd pace in 27.09, then Craig Jarman 4th, 27.56, Matt Reed 5th 28.04, Jon Hamblen 8th 28.17, Hugo Fleming 13th 28.57, Tom Higgins 16th 29.06, Chris de Mauny 40th 30.20, Jon Ladley 46th in 30.40, Rob Marcus 48th 30.49 and Jamie Harvey completed the scoring team of 10 50th 30.56.
Our other runners were Rob Casebourne 31.10, Matt Pharaoh 31.23, Phillip Bearman 31.32, Isaac Mammen 32.00, Chris Ness 32.22, Phil Bearman 32.25, Charlie Feinson 33.07, David Cowie 33.13 and Adam McCarthy 39.05.

In the Division 1 matches, Jonny came 5th and Fiona 12th.

Ness brings home the M45 Gold Medal

Walton Athletic Club had representation in the World Championships Ultra Multievents held in Turnhout, Belgium last weekend. Chris Ness (M45) proudly wore the GB vest competing in the 12 running, 4 jumping and 4 throwing disciplines over 2 days – having previous world championship experience from 2013 & 2015.

Chris Ness was in good form during day one and firmly flagged his intention to make the podium from midday onwards in very hot and sunny conditions by putting together a good string of performances through events 5 to 8: the 5000m in 19:51, 800m in 2:28, high jump of 1.50m and 400m in 63.1. With not much left by the end of day one, the final 10^th event presented Chris an opportunity to play on his strengths and maximise points. A gutsy run of 12:19 for the 3000m steeplechase proved to be his highest individual scoring event of 684 points, during which race unfortunately an outstanding Dutch competitor had to retire with injury. Chris however now found himself with an overnight score of 4766 points (and 2^nd position overall) in a very close 3-way contest with his great friend and inspirational teammate Butler of Basingstoke in 4^th.

During day two after the 2^nd event, positions had chopped and changed with the Belgian overnight leader falling back to 3^rd position after a disappointing hurdles while his German rival had now taken the lead. Chris stuck to his plan and was rewarded with overall lead for the first time in the championship after running a strong 71.2 in the 400m hurdles – the 16^th event, held not long after a hard run in the 3000m. The very strong Belgian and most likely challenger needed to close 219 points on Chris during the final four events and successfully made up points over Chris in each of the subsequent three disciplines where Chris ran 5:10 in the 1500m, threw 24m in the javelin, before being restricted to the one tentative opening jump of 8.65m in the triple jump with a strained and painful adductor injury. Having to retire for treatment for 30 minutes of physio while the 2^nd and 3^rd rounds of the triple jump were concluding, the points differential shrunk to just 80 points going into the final 10000m (equating to about 2 minutes). In a highly charged atmosphere, with uplifting crowd support and the 25 laps underway, Chris managed to finish 37 seconds behind the tough Belgian who had pushed the pace at the 5km mark (forcing Chris to have to run some 3 minutes faster than last year with 43:48).  This strong performance was enough to secure the gold medal and a total of 8892 points – also a new personal best by more than 400 points.

– Next year the Indoors (a Double Heptathlon) will be held in Helsinki during April. Anybody interested in taking up Ultra Multievents, Chris will be only too pleased to discuss with you.