Enfield Walker 2010 - 4 - Race Walk UK

<strong>Enfield</strong> <strong><strong>Walk</strong>er</strong> May <strong>2010</strong>(Newsheet of the <strong>Walk</strong>ing Section of <strong>Enfield</strong> & Haringey AC)No FourCompiled & produced by Ron Wallwork, 35A, Newmarket Road, Moulton, Suffolk, CB8 8QP - 01638 751869/randjwallwork@btinternet.com____________________________________ _who apologises for any errors and who welcomes contributions and comments for future issuesBernie Hercock BulletinFollowing the completion of the Southern Vets League 2km at LVAC on Monday 10th May, to the horror of hisfellow competitors Bernie Hercock collapsed with a cardiac arrest. The worst was feared, but fortunately medicallyqualified people were on hand and thanks to their efforts, he was breathing again by the time the paramedics arrived.He was transferred to North Middlesex Hospital by which time he was sufficiently recovered to speak.Bernie’s son (also called Bernie) has told me that the following day he was transferred to the London Heart Hospitaland underwent tests and was sat up and quite chirpy when he visited him that evening. A decision about thenecessity for a heart by-pass will be made when all the tests are analyzed.He is in the Ward ACW, 2nd floor, London Heart Hospital, 16 Westmoorland Street, London W1.His home address is 29 Albany Park Avenue, <strong>Enfield</strong>, Middlesex, EN3 5NTThe much liked and respected Bernie, a relative newcomer to race walking after a successful running career makes amassive contribution to the success of the League and I know that the legion of friends that he has in athletics willall be wishing him a speedy and full recovery.I understand that EHAC web-master Geoffrey Harrold also suffered a cardiac arrest at LVAC only a week or sobefore Bernie. Geoff is making progress albeit slow, but I know that the walkers will join the rest of the club and hisfriends in wishing him too, a full recoverySeven Days four events three pb’s for Helen Helen Middleton set a pb for 20km in the national 20kmchampionships on Sunday 11th April. Three days later she was in action again, this time it was over five miles in theVAC’s midweek fixture at Battersea Park, where she was the first lady to finish in 45.30.The following day she took part in a 5km swimathon. Many will know that Helen’s main event used to beswimming, and to be told by a coach upon arrival at the pool “that she didn’t look like a swimmer anymore”, was ared rag to a bull and all the motivation she needed. She was timed at 1.26.40 which was a pb.At the Don Valley Stadium on 17th April she won the Jeff Ford Ladies 10km in 54.41 for her third pb of aremarkable week.EHAC <strong><strong>Walk</strong>er</strong>s in the County Championships The ladies collected two titlesand along with them two pb’s and two championship records; Helen Middleton theBedfordshire in 16.18 and the club’s latest recruit to race walking Angie Alstrachen, in herdebut race won the Suffolk 3km in 20.12. There were second place medals for NormaGrimsey 20.12 in the Middlesex, Serena Queeney 21.15 in the Suffolk and Arthur Thomson16.14 in the Hertfordshire. In the Middlesex race Sean Pender finished fourth in 17.41, RonPowell fifth in 18.58 and Bernie Hercock sixth in 21.07.Angie AlstrachenMore about County Championships – a Bright Future for KentWith thirteen starters the Kent 3km championship was by far the largest of the southernchampionship fields. However, for me, the most relevant fact was that all but three of them were under twenty-onein stark contrast to all the other championships and gave a clear demonstration that race walking can be a youngpersons discipline. The standard too was first class as shown by Tom Bosworth’s (20) 11.46 by far the fastest in thesouth, Jonathan Hobbs’ (16) 14.26 and Liam Baldwin’s (18) 14.37 efforts. Not to be outdone Kate Funnell (15)clocked a pb of 15.09 to get the better of Diane Bradley by two seconds, whilst Emily Symons (16) also pb’d with15.43 as did Becky Collins (18) with 15.59. The times of the other youngsters were quite good too. Well done! toall involved with the flourishing Kent race walking set up.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The next League Fixture is on Saturday 22nd May at Lee Valley Athletic CentreHour Badge MeetingEntries (because of track time) no later than Monday 17th MayTo Ron Wallwork, Woodview, 35A Newmarket Road, Moulton Suffolk, CB8 8QP

<strong>Race</strong> <strong>Walk</strong>ing<strong>2010</strong> <strong>Enfield</strong> League Fourth Fixture – LICC 3km Track Copthall Stadium 24th AprilIt turned out to be Ladies Day at the first LICC meeting of the year. 1. Fransico Reis (Ilford AC) 14.24 M45In ideal conditions Diane Bradley and Kelsey Howard completely 2. Trevor Jones (Steyning AC) 15.04 M50demolished the LICC record of 15.49 set in 2004 at Battersea Park 3. Steve Uttley (Ilford AC) 15.16 M50by Belgrave’s V.Lauer. 4. Steve Allen (Barnet AC) 15.44 M505. Andrew Cox (Hillingdon AC) 16.18 M55Sue Barnett and Norma Grimsey also set personal bests as did 6. John Ralph (Chiltern H) 16.43 M50Steve Allen.7. Amos Seddon (<strong>Enfield</strong> H AC) 17.06 M608. Michael Harran (Surrey WC) 17.15 M701. Diane Bradley (Tonbridge AC) 15.22 W45 9. Ken Bobbett (Hillingdon AC) 17.24 M652. Kelsey Howard (Tonbridge AC) 15.36 u17 10. Sean Pender (<strong>Enfield</strong> H AC) 17.27 M653. Helen Middleton (<strong>Enfield</strong> HAC) 16.24 W45 11. David Sharpe (Ilford AC) 17.34 M554. Anne Belchambers(Steyning AC) 18.34 W55 12. Michael Hinton (Ilford AC) 18.48 M555. Di Braverman (<strong>Enfield</strong> H AC) 18.55 W55 13. Ron Powell (<strong>Enfield</strong> H AC) 18.52 M706. Sue Barnett (<strong>Enfield</strong> HAC) 19.11 W60 14. Jon May (<strong>Enfield</strong> H AC) 19.34 M557. Norma Grimsey (<strong>Enfield</strong> HAC) 20.05 W50 15. Bernie Hercock(<strong>Enfield</strong> H AC) 20.51 M7016. David Ainsworth(Ilford AC) 23.29 M60________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<strong>2010</strong> League Positions after Four FixturesThe top two individual positions remain close with Kelsey Howard, Sue Barnett and Norma Grimsey moving intothe ladies top ten. Andy Cox and club mate Ken Bobbett are among a number names appearing for the first time inthis years leading twenty in the men’s section.In the team table, Ilford’s 109 point lead over EHAC was cut to 60. Surrey with only onewalker at Copthall was overtaken into third spot by Steyning and Tonbridge with only threewalkers moved into eighth place.LadiesMen1. 242/4 Di Bradley 1. 256/4 Trevor Jones 11. 145/3 Andrew Cox2. 230/4 Helen Middleton 2. 253/4 Fransisco Reis 12. 143/3 Ken Bobbett3. 167/4 Anne Belchambers 3. 245/4 Steve Uttley 13. 141/3 Peter Hannell4. 139/3 Maureen Noel 4. 191/4 David Sharpe 14. 129/2 Phil Barnard5. 128/3 Becky Collins 5. 190/4 Sean Pender 15. 129/2 Nick Silvester6. 110/3 Sue Barnett 6. 181/4 John Ralph 16. 121/4 Bernie Hercock7. 106/2 Kelsey Howard 7. 173/3 Steve Allen (Barnet) 17. 120/3 Oliver Browne8. 98/2 Norma Grimsey 8. 166/3 John Hall 18. 117/2 Shaun Lightman9. 77/2 Fiona Bishop 9. 155/3 Amos Seddon 19. 116/3 Peter Crane10. 75/2 Jo Stringer 10. 152/4 Ron Powell 20. 113/2 Arthur ThomsonCopies of the team tables will be available at the next League <strong>Race</strong>Ken Bobbett who moved into the top dozen of the League. The photograph was taken by JimCoomber in 1967 at a time when Ken was a force to be reckoned with. In that year he won theWelsh 10 miles championship in 74.39, finished fourth in the AAA seven miles in 53.16 andsecond in the Met Open 20km in 97.34.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________National 20km Championship I was on holiday, so unable to get along to Victoria Park on 11th April forthe <strong>UK</strong>A/RWA national 20km championships, which on looking at the result appears to have been an exciting race.There was of course much at stake with places for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games on offer, providing thatqualifying times 1.42.00 (women) and 1.29.00 (men) were achieved. Although the result sheet I saw didn’t show thenumber of starters it did list three disqualifications, and looking at Mark Easton’s photoblog of the race, there wereat least three retirements as well, so the field numbered at least thirty-eight.Twenty-year old Tom Bosworth (Tonbridge AC) was a clear winner in 91.06. Colchester Harriers with Dan King92.52 second, Luke Finch 93.38 in third and Dominic King 93.48 in fourth, easily won the team title with 291points. Tommy Taylor (Birchfield H) 94.52 and Scott Davis 96.17 (Ilford AC) were the only others to better 1.40.00.Current League leader Trevor Jones 112.26 occupied eighth place, one ahead of the club’s outstanding veteranArthur Thomson 114.51, whilst the other EHAC competitors were Sean Pender 127.14 in nineteenth, Ron Powell137.33 in twenty-ninth and Bernie Hercock 149.23 in thirty-first.

League team leaders Ilford AC through Davis, Steve Uttley 122.50 fourteenth and Dave Kates 123.47 fifteenth tooksecond place with 265 and Birchfield third with 246, only three points ahead of EHAC.A dozen or so took part in the ladies event. Jo Jackson’s winning time of 99.14 suggested that she took things easyas well she might, so large is the gap behind her. Nearly seven minutes adrift of her national record, she was stillcomfortably inside the qualifying standard for Dehli. Niobe Menendez (Steyning AC) 105:45 was second and FionaMcGorum (Leicester WC) 113:06 third. The League’s leading lady Diane Bradley was fourth in 114.16 and HelenMiddleton fifth in yet another pb of 120.06.RWA Championship Secretary Peter Marlow writes about the event on the back page________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Does Anyone Know? In the last issue Middlesex was shown as finishing third behind Warwickshire and Kentin Molly Barnet Inter-Counties 10km. My friend Ron Penfold has queried this because he understood that Sussexwere in the first three. Can anyone with the official result clear this up please?Results Round-upVeterans AC Events - Helen Middleton 45.30 and Arthur Thomson 45.36 had a tremendous scrap to determinefourth and fifth places in the first of the summer’s midweek races over five miles at Battersea Park on 13th April.Sean Pender 50.16 in ninth, Jon May 57.35 in fifteenth and Bernie Hercock 60.06 in sixteenth were the other clubwalkers at the event. The overall winner was Mark Easton who dipped under forty minutes by twelve seconds.Fransisco Reis 41.12 was second and Peter Ryan 43.06 third. In total twenty walkers took part.The second race on 26th April was the VAC’s 10km championship incorporating the Herts, Middlesex and Surreychampionships. Over the longer distance Arthur took his revenge over Helen. His time in fifth place overall, but firstM70 was 55.52 to Helen’s seventh overall first W45 57.22. The same club walkers also competed. Sean waseleventh in 61.00, Jon eighteenth in 66.28 and Bernie twenty-first in 77.48. <strong>Race</strong> winner was Olympian andCenturion Ian Richards M60 in a time of 48.54. Twenty-two walkers took part.It was nice to read that in the Milan May Day 20km Jo Jackson finished third in 92.05, whilst in the men’s eventnineteen year old Belgravian Alex Wright made a breakthrough time-wise of 90.27 in twenty-sixth place. Theyoung National 20km champion Tom Bosworth clocked 93.03 in thirty-first place, which whilst slower than hiswinning time at Victoria Park is encouraging and shows that he has a good level of fitness and technique on which toimprove.On the Spring Bank Holiday Monday two events took part in Hertfordshire. In the afternoon the County 3kmtrack championship took place at Stevenage where Steve Allen (Barnet) retained his title in 15.36, some twentyseconds faster than his winning time last year, when he was a relative newcomer to the discipline. Arthur Thomsonwas second in 16.14, Helen Middleton (one of a number of guests who made up the seven strong field) finished thirdoverall in 16.26 and Sue Barnett fourth with a pb of 19.02. Third in the Hertfordshire Championship was JohnBorgars in 20.01. The testing Pednor open Five miles was dominated by Fransisco Reis in 42.04 who finished wellclear of last year’s winner Peter Ryan who clocked 43.26. Steve Uttley was third in 43.29. First club member homewas Helen Middleton who was first lady in fourth overall with 45.38, followed by Arthur Thomson 45.44, SeanPender 49.13 and Bernie Hercock 57.55. I understand that there were thirty or so walkers to finish.In the EVAC 2km at Bedford on 5th May Helen set another pb of 10.48.More County Championships – How Leaguer’s Got OnThere were senior titles for Francisco Reis 14.14 and Maureen Noel 17.50 in the Middlesex. At Chelmsford in theEssex race Steve Uttley 15.09 took second with David Sharpe third in 18.13. Trevor Jones 15.07 and AnneBelchambers 18.37 placed second in their respective Sussex events, whilst Peter Hannell’s 17.32 were good enoughto win the Surrey championship. For Herts see previous paragraph.Even More County Championships – County Champions not mentioned aboveEssex titles went to Daniel King in a swift 12.45 and to Linda Mountford 20.59. Winner of the Suffolkchampionship was former Scottish international David Buchanan in 17.42. The Norfolk championships were held inconjunction with the Suffolk at Ipswich and Cath Duhig with 18.24 won easily from Sue Smith 22.27. The Sussexand Surrey championship was a combined event. Ian Richards 13.57 and Sarah Sowerby 16.34 were the successfulSussex walkers and Surrey’s lady champion was Estle Viljoen in 15.15.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Would You be Interested? In a week long training break at Calella, near Barcelona sometimeduring the month between the Pat Fury Five on 2nd October and the Club Open Seven on 6th November.The final cost will depend on the size of the party. If you are - kindly let Ron Wallwork know assoon as possible

Well on the MendPeter Cassidy who is a regular attendee at League events was rushed into hospital two days before the National20km with gall stones. His stay there lasted three weeks. He is now recovering and has resumed officiating duties.I have been requested to make it known that there is no truth in the rumour that his recovery has in any way, or isbeing hampered by worry and concern about not being on hand to collect the <strong>Enfield</strong> League levies. We lookforward to paying them over soon!Happy Birthday Doug Doug Fotheringham who has been an ever present on the walking scene since his firstrace back the early fifties celebrated his eightieth birthday last month and will be featured in the next issue.Sudbury Five fun <strong>Walk</strong>Thanks to those who were able to support the Sudbury FiveFun <strong>Walk</strong> on Good Friday.The result appeared in the last issue. The walk was restrictedto two hundred and a number of race walkers had their entriesreturned because the limit was reached well in advance of theevent’s closing date..L to R: Bernie Hercock, Amos Seddon, Helen Middleton, David Sharpe(obscured), Richard Emsley, Sue Smith, Jenny Mann and Serena Queeney________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________From the RWA Hon Championships SecretaryThe National 20km Championships at Victoria Park was another great occasion for the sport when more than 100walkers gathered with various goals and various results!At the top of the pecking order, the men’s race was won by young Tom Bosworth in a shade over 90 minutesalthough most of the spectators present felt he would have gone sub 89 and achieved the qualifying time for theCommonwealth Games had it not been for the unhelpful strong winds.Six men under 96.20 and nine club teams finishing was a welcome return to a high quality result sheet.Jo Jackson continued her relentless drive towards world class with a classy and relaxed 99.14 victory in the women’srace to ensure her selection for both the World Cup and Commonwealth Games later this year. She followed this upwith a magnificent third place at the IAAF Challenge in Sesto San Giovanni , the first Briton to ever reach thepodium of an IAAF Challenge event.The 20km championships were combined with the YAG Championships and is certainly the way to go forward inthe future and it was interesting to note that there were two non English victors in the YAG races, one from the Isleof Man and one from Northern Ireland .The event received outstanding support from both the <strong>UK</strong>A and England Athletics media departments with bothorganisations giving the pre and post event coverage top billing. A sponsor also provided t-shirts on the day whichwere welcomed by all who took part. One of the most interesting stats from the championships was that there wasmore than 1 million metres walked on the day! (1,165,850m to be exact!)June sees the turn of England to host the annual so called small nation’s match which will be contested by England ,Ireland , Belgium , Netherlands , Switzerland and Denmark. The event, which has an EAA Permit will take place inBedford on June 20th and includes a final Commonwealth Games trial and is of crucial importance for thedevelopment of the senior walkers for the future of the sport in England. In an exciting addition, the junior 10kmraces will take place on the track as part of the <strong>UK</strong> Junior/U23 Championships.The rescheduled National and International 50kms will take place in London on October 20th along with supportingevents.Finally, as part of the big build up to London 2012, the 2011 National Championships will be on the OlympicCourse in the Mall which will certainly be one to tell the grandchildren about.Only 11 months of training left……Peter Marlow________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________R.I.P. The Reverend David Christie-Murray (SWC & The Centurions) a former winner of the <strong>Enfield</strong> Open 7Miles <strong>Walk</strong> has died at the age of 96. He scored two war-time victories in 1940 and 41 with times of 55.25 and55.05 and attended the open at Donkey Lane three or four years ago.