Category Archives: Current Results

Surrey League XC

At the half way stage of the Surrey League Cross Country League, Walton continue to dominate the U15/17 age group.

After narrowingly losing out to South London Harriers in the first fixture at Richmond Park by 8 points, Walton were out to regain first position in the second fixture at Wimbledon Common. They certainly did not let themselves down with club captain Ben Fitzpatrick wining the individual race, followed home by Ollie Emment in second, and with another three Walton athletes in the top ten easily secured the team victory. So after two of the four fixtures the U15/17 boys are in first place ahead of South London Harriers.

In the under 13 Boys competition, Walton struggled in the first fixture due to non availability and with only two athletes competing ended up in 9th place. But with a much better turn out in the second fixture the team ran their socks off to take 5th place. At the halfway stage the under 13 Boys are in 5th place out of 15 teams.

Well done to all the boys who have competed in the league so far this season especially newcomers Friso Kolff, Charlie Davidson, Stephen Smith & Lucas Williams and to club captain Ben Fitzpatrick for his amazing pre race speeches.

The third fixture takes place in January at Mitcham Common.

Meanwhile, in spite of the paper team suffering due to absence, injury, or recent marathon runs, superb runs from Hugo Fleming and Andrew Crooks saw the men’s team place 6th on a winding and undulating course at Nork Park, and lying 7th in the division with only a handful of points separating Windmilers ahead and Croydon behind. Hugo came in 10th and Andrew 13th in a field headed by GB international Andy Maud. The rest of the team collectively made up huge points with strong second laps, Duncan Woolmer ultimately placing 29th. A three-way scrap between Chris de Mauny (53), Jon Ladley (56) and Rob Lovegrove (58) saw them all rise up the field in the second lap, with Matt Pharaoh heroically holding position ahead of the three in 49th. Matt Reed and Rob Marcus followed, both recording steady runs for 73rd and 77th, with the ever dependable Chris Ness closing out the team in 85th. Rob Smith and Adam McCarthy provided valuable backup.

In the SLCCL at Nonsuch Park, a handful of girls tackled the flat but technical course, the thin layer of mud created by the previous night’s deluge nicely cut up by the record-breaking division 2 senior race at 11am. Bella Wiles and Eloise Williams were 13th and 29th in the U15 race, while Imogen Burton was 6th in the U17. For once, the seniors outnumbered juniors, and the near-complete team of Lizzie, Mandie, Guillaine and Armanda were clobbered by the 308 penalty points for the incomplete team, to finish 22nd, in spite of strong runs.

The next fixture for the women is in February at Richmond Park, while the men will race with the boys in January at Mitcham Common.

National Cross Country Relays

A small but determined team of Walton athletes made the very early start to travel up north to Mansfield to compete in the English Cross Country Relay Championships. The pinnacle of the relay calendar, on the superb course at Berry Hill Park once again drew in great crowds from all over the country to watch the age group races.

First up was the under 17 women running over 2:5km. Emma Horsey led the team off coming home in 26th place. Handing over to Charlotte Vaughan who made up good ground and pulled the team back into 15th place and the final leg was taken by Rachel Pharaoh who maintained good form and brought the team home in 16th place.

The under 17 men running over 3km, were next to compete. The A team of Ben Marks, club captain Ben Fitzpatrick and Oliver Coppolletti did extremely well and came home in 16th place out of 75 teams, with Ben Fitzpatrick running the 10th fastest time on leg 2. The B team of Tom Jones, Michael Cottrill and Edward Dawson came home in 53rd place.

Last to compete was the under 15 Boys over 2km. The A team of Jack Gemmell, Ross Hurst and Ollie Emment did outstanding and finished in 10th place out of 93 teams with Ollie Emment running the 7th fastest time on leg 3. The B team of Joseph Daws-Twilley and the Punton twins, Finn and Josh came home in a credible 59th place.

Well done to all the athletes who made the trip north and for the wonderful support from all the parents.

Reigate Priory Relays

Team third for Walton senior men at Priory Relays!

The sun was high and the wind likewise as the WAC men and women donned their vests for this annual piece of fun.

After a couple of drop-outs during the week nine men turned up to race, presenting a minor difficulty in teams of four. However, some internal wrangling and a change to the paperwork gave a solution with some doubling up to complete the C team.

On the women’s side, the legendary Williams sisters were having their first cross-country race together since records began and seemed to enjoy themselves immensely, stepping up from their somewhat more accustomed distances to tackle this 4km course.

The men’s A team was led off by Andrew Crooks, returning to XC running this season after a few years away. Andrew handed over to Jamie Mcloughlin who ran a storming second leg (fastest WAC runner of the day) to hand over to Jon Ladley. Another strong leg from Jon brought us into the final leg in fourth place as Jon handed over to Chris de Mauny. Chris passed the third placed runner on the flat section on the top of the hill and ran in to clinch third place. Both the first and second placed teams (Dorking and Belgrave) contained current or former senior internationals: Walton was very much the “best of the rest” today.

Rob Marcus, Chris Ness, Richard Drew, James Bartosik and Adam McCarthy had a complex race among themselves since between them they managed seven legs of the four-leg relay, Andrew Crooks also running a second time to complete the C team.

Full results are not yet available but will be here soon.

Bruce Judd Cross Country Relays

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!!

World Champions at Masters

Those who follow on twitter or facebook will have noticed a barrage of updates in the last week or two updating you on goings on at the World Masters Championships taking place in Malaga, Spain. Champion followed champion, and it should be no surprise therefore that the combined might of Walton AC would have held our own in a medals table ultimately topped by Great Britain, winning four gold, two silvers and a bronze. (35th, in fact, two places behind Ireland).

The action started on 5th September, with Susie McLoughlin going in the W40 100m. Making light work of the heats (12.77, 1st) and semifinal (12.67, 2nd), she pulled off a stunning bronze medal in the tightest of finishes, with just 0.16s separating the top six athletes.

It was swiftly onto the 200m from the 7th September, with the action moving from Malaga main stadium to the University, where Susie and Jo Flowers battled strong headwinds in both their qualifying rounds and semifinals.

Jo ran a superb 28.30 to finish 6th in her semifinal. Susie stormed into the final in an incredibly competitive field. She was chasing down the silver medalist from the 100m in the home straight but just ran out of room, taking the silver in a superb time of 25.87 into a 1.7m/s headwind.

Earlier that morning, at the main stadium, Jamie McLoughlin and Chris de Mauny were tackling the 10km road race in stifling humidity. Hardly ideal conditions for road running, but the pair both ran very well in the circumstances, Jamie recording 37:41 for 38th place M40, and Chris running 37:54 for 40th in the M35s.

A couple of days’ breather for our sprinters, but it was over to second-claimers Virginia Mitchell and Fiona de Mauny in the 800s at Carranque Stadium. Both qualified comfortably at the front of their heats and with less than 18hrs recovery each were back on the morning of 11th September to race for the titles. Virginia was up first, running a smart race to sit with the pack and accelerate at the bell. Finding the pace a little slower than she would like, she surged away in the home straight towards the end of the first lap, destroying her opposition with an ultimate victory margin of more than 4s with 2:26.

Fiona employed a rather different tactic; without the luxury of being ranked fastest in the field, she ran the finish out of her opposition, going hard from the gun and taking the lead at 200m. Her even-paced 2:10 was ultimately 3s ahead of her closest rival. Two World Champions in the space of an hour!!

There was no time to rest for our Champions though, as both were competing in the 400 with preliminary rounds taking place later the same day. They were joined by Susie and Jo, with all comfortably qualifying to the semifinals in automatic positions. Susie and Virginia both won their semis to advance to the finals, with Fiona (58.46) and Jo (62.04) both recording PBs to join them on finals day.

Virginia was again up first, and she stormed round the blue mondo well in front of her competitors to record the second fastest all-time 400m in this age category in Europe (62.16), which was also her fastest time for four years.

There must have been something special in the air, as Jo followed her up with another PB of 62.01 for 6th in her final. Susie also recorded her fastest time since 2014, the strength of her final straight proving too much for the others as she won in 57.79, 0.5s ahead of the silver medalist. Fiona followed this with yet another PB (58.22), her 800m strength shining through as her home straight charge took her from 8th place with 100m to go to only 0.2s off the bronze medal.

With just the 1500m and relays remaining for our athletes, there was a slight lull in proceedings before Fiona was up again late on Saturday night, taking 2nd place and an automatic spot in a tactical 4:42 1500m.

Following another quick turnaround, she was back out the next morning in searingly hot conditions as the famous Mediterranean sun finally made an appearance. Sitting on the shoulder of the leader for 1000m, she found herself boxed in approaching the bell but remained calm and waited for a gap to open. With 150m to go the gap finally appeared and, although two athletes had already gained a substantial lead, a little bit of that 400m speed was on display as she moved herself from 5th position up the field to take the silver medal with a SB time of 4:37.44 behind multiple Paralympic Champion Soumaya Bousaid from Tunisia.

Just the relays remained, with Jo, Susie and Fiona running the 4x 100 to bring GB home 6th, 4th and 5th. Virginia and Jo then ran in the 4x 400 teams, Virginia anchoring the team home for a convincing win, while the W45s were 5th. We would have loved to see what these four could have done together…

An incredible championships from our athletes, who will no doubt now enjoy a well earned break before the training starts again in earnest for the World Indoors (Torun) and European Athletics (Venezia) next year.