Galleries

Surrey Cross Country League Men’s Division 3

Walton AC senior and U20 men won Division 3 of the Surrey Cross Country League after the final race in Croydon last Saturday. In the background of this shot of the leaders you can see WAC’s Duncan Woolmer and Craig Jarman who finished 4th and 6th in the race. The whole team ran well but of particular note was Michael Cottril in 12th place overall earning him second placed overall U20 for the season and fellow U20 Olly Coppellotti who suffered from some problems on the day but took the overall U20 division title after a strong performance across the season.

This win will see WAC back in its familiar surroundings of Division 2 for the 2020/21 season beginning in October.

For a full write up of the division 3 race, see the Surrey League facebook page here

The top of Division 3 provided a rare example of the often-heard “every place matters”. Going into the final match,…

Posted by Surrey Cross Country League on Monday, 10 February 2020

Border League Cross Country

BORDER LEAGUE X-C at GUILDFORD – RACE REPORT

Sunday saw 21 of our young athletes travel to (an exceedingly muddy!) Guildford to represent the club in the Border League, against other athletics clubs and schools from Berkshire, Surrey & Hampshire. It was another great performance with representation across the U9, U11 and U13 age groups. For some it was their first race and for many more their first experience of true cross-country conditions. Tough getting around in trainers and even tougher in cases where both trainers came off in the squelching mud of Stoke Park!

Congratulations to each and every one of our runners.

First off were the U9 boys running a lap of 1300m. In a field of 85 runners Hunor Dani finished in an excellent 20th position with Nelson Taylor and Fraser Cargill, both a full year younger than most other young runners, well-placed middle of the pack.

Next up over the slightly longer distance of 1500m was the same girls’ quartet from last match in Lightwater. A great team performance finishing 6th overall of the 14 clubs led in by Sabrina Coppola Johansen in an impressive 11th place, with Lottie Paul (20th) and Rachel Riedlinger (30th) in a big field of 91 runners. The club are proud of Poppy Scott who showed real character true spirit of sportsmanship, sacrificing her race on the day to stay alongside another runner who was in distress and help her get around and complete the course.

Immediately following the girl’s race, the U11 boys’ team put in a great show and had their best result to date. The individual performance of the day has to be Jake Meyburgh’s 3rd place, running 8 minutes flat over 2000m in a field of 112 runners. With real strength in depth and numbers, Walton AC finished 4th overall of 14 clubs with Jack Wright (18th), Charlie Bedford (27th), Josh Johnston (28th) and Samuel Shepherd (30th) all finishing comfortably in the top third of the field. The team also saw good performances from Tom Stevenson, Joseph Sandri Durban, Seb Clark, Mason Pollard-Day, Ethan Luiz and Alex Grantham – most who had previously run at Lightwater in the previous fixture. A strong team result, something to build on for the final race next month.

On this occasion the club did not field full teams for the U13s, but this takes nothing away from what was a very strong run in the conditions by Evie Bedford to finish 5th of 46 runners in an excellent 11:18 mins for the 2600m course.

Finally, in the boys’ race, over the slightly longer 3000m, both Harry Currie and Lucas Pollock-Williams saw further improvement from their last outing to finish 11th (in 11:48 mins) and 24th position (12:27 mins) respectively of a field of 48 runners.

  • The next Border League will be at Reigate on Sunday 1st March 2020.

Walton AC Academy & Satellite team
Photos: K Scott

Walton AC 2019 Awards Night

On 29 November we held our annual Celebration of Achievements night.  It was a fabulous evening and was the first time we have been able to hold a joint Juniors and Seniors event at our new facilities.

Lots of work was done by many people in order to make the evening a success. But special thanks must go to Kelly Van Der Westhuizen, Nicola Vaughan and Amanda Sudderick for their excellent work in organising the evening – the raffle prizes were to die for! Thanks also to Christian Burgar for compering the evening, to James Bartosik for taking on the role of official photographer and, last but not least, to the coaches for their work throughout the year helping our athletes to improve and for their inputs to the team of people who spent endless hours considering who should win what.

So, with congratulations to our many talented athletes, the winners were as follows:

Best Age Group Performance U13 Male

Xavier Taylor

Winning the Walton A.C. U13 Boys Cup

Best Age Group Performance U13 Female

Madison Emment (this is her proud mum [Emma] collecting on Maddie’s behalf of course)

Winning the Walton A.C. U13 Girls Cup

Best Age Group Performance U15 Male

Oliver (Ollie) Emment

Winning the Walton A.C. U15 Boys Cup

Best Age Group Performance U15 Female

Amy van der Westhuizen

Winning the Walton A.C. U15 Girls Cup

Best Age Group Performance U17 Male

Jack Gemmell and Ross Hurst

Joint winners of the Walton A.C. U17 Boys Cup

Best Age Group Performance U17 Female

Jeslyn Agyei-Kyem and Georgia Russell

Joint winners of the Walton A.C. U17 Girls Cup

Best Age Group Performance U20 Male

Ethan Dray

Winning the Walton A.C. U20 Men’s Cup

Unfortunately, Nicola was unable to collect her award on the night, but we gave it to her when she collected her Elmbridge Sports Award 😊
Best Age Group Performance U20 Female

Nicola Bell

Winning the Walton A.C. U20 Women’s Cup

Best Overall Junior Male Performance
(Junior Male Victor Ludorum)

Sam Mace
(This, of course, is Sam’s mum, Sabrina, looking very happy on his account!)

Winning the Walton A.C
Jack Rutherford Cup
Best Junior Male Athlete

Best Overall Junior Female Performance
(Junior Female Victor Ludorum)

Cedelle Agyei-Kyem

Winning the Walton A.C
Debbie Singleton Cup
Best Junior Female Athlete

Best Cross Country Season Junior Boys

Ben Fitzpatrick

Winning the Walton A.C Junior Cross Country Shield

Photograph not available
Best Cross Country Season Junior Girls

Charlotte Vaughan

Winning the Walton A.C Junior Girls Cross Country Shield

Best Overall Senior Male Performance
Men’s Victor Ludorum (O20 Upwards)

Hugo Fleming

Winning the
Alan Turing Cup

Best Overall Senior Female Performance
Women’s Victor Ludorum (O20 Upwards)

Susie McLoughlin

Winning the
Alice Bygrave Memorial Cup

Best Senior Male Performance
(O20 in context of senior competition)

Craig Jarman

Winning the Walton A.C. Senior Men’s Cup

Best Senior Female Performance
(O20 in context of senior competition)

Clare Ridd

Winning the
Williams’ Cup

Clare was not present so Martin Norman collected it on her behalf. He was too shy to be in the photograph though and insisted on the cup being the focal point.

Best O35 Men’s Masters Performance

Stuart Channon

Winning the Walton A.C. O35 Men’s Masters Cup

Best O35 Women’s Masters Performance

Lizzie Amos

Winning the Walton A.C. O35 Women’s Masters Cup

Best O50 Men’s Masters Performance

Joe Eastwood

Winning the
Peter Harding Memorial Cup

Best O50 Women’s Masters Performance

Jo Flowers

Winning the Walton A.C. O50 Women’s Masters Award

Best Senior Men’s Cross Country Season

Duncan Woolmer

Winning the
Walton A.C. 50th Anniversary Trophy

Best Second Claim Athlete

Virginia Mitchell

Winning the Walton A.C. Second Claim Athlete of the Year Award

Best Support or Superb Volunteer Award

Martin Norman

Winning the
1942 Founders’ Cup

Best Contribution to League Competition U20 Boys

Finn Punton

Winning the Walton A.C. Boys U20 League Trophy

Best Contribution to League Competition U20 Girls

Emma Fisher and Sian Popham

Jointly Winning the Walton A.C. Girls U20 League Trophy

Best Contribution to League Competition Senior Men

Rob A Smith

Winning the Walton A.C. Men’s League Trophy

Best Contribution to League Competition Senior Women

Eva West and Lucy Bartlett

Jointly winning the Walton A.C. Women’s League Trophy

Photograph not available
Special Recognition Award

Philip Kastner

The Tony Brooks Trophy

And now, I shall leave you with some other photos of the night and wish you all a very happy Christmas and prosperous and healthy New Year.
Best wishes,
Marie Marks, WAC Chair

Sports Hub Christmas Opening Times

Please note we have been advised by PfP that the sports hub opening times over the Christmas period will be as follows:

Tuesday 24th December – Closed
Wednesday 25th December – Closed
Thursday 26th December – 09.00-17.00
Friday 27th December – 09.00-17.00
Saturday 28th December – 09.00-19.00
Sunday 29th December – 09.00-17.00
Monday 30th December – 12.00-20.00
Tuesday 31st December – Closed
Wednesday 1st January – Closed
Normal hours resume

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