Results for July to December 2025
Veterans AC 10000m track race walk incorporating Sussex, Surrey, Middx & Herts County Championships, Norman Park, Bromley, 4 October 2025 The annual VAC and Counties championships took place in good racing conditions in fair weather, with a certain amount of wind. Numbers were up on the previous year, in addition there was a 2000m race held for the juniors. Both achieved personal bests, in the case of Florence Watson by over a minute. The ladies’ race had a new winner, Susan Payne in a time just outside the hour, with runner up Chik Ha Kwok “Billie” from VAC second place overall. The men’s race was convincingly won by Wai Tak Cheung (Ken) from Stubbington Green Runners, who had previously won in 2022. VAC were also pleased to welcome back to the start line Dave Annetts from Cambridge & Coleridge, who finished in second place in a good time in under the hour. Flying the flag for Sussex, Trevor Jones (Steyning AC) took the County honours, and Peter Gregoire, also from the same club, was in second place, with county awards presented by Ron Penfold. There were four Middlesex County medallists, presented by John Hall, Billie as mentioned above and her husband Man Biu Lam also from VAC each with gold, and the ever-present Maureen Noel (Belgrave Harriers) and Mark Culshaw (Central Park Athletics) taking silver medals. For Herts, Dave Annetts as mentioned above took gold, with John Borgars (Herts Phoenix) earning silver. Surrey had one medallist, the prolific competitor Fiona Bishop. VAC are indebted as always to the team of officials and judges for this event to take place, who appear below. Acknowledgements
Beckenham Place parkrun, Saturday 4 October 2025
On a day when Storm Amy had led to the cancellations of many parkruns, 13 VAC members met in bright sunshine outside the mansion in Beckenham Place Park. Although sunny, it was very windy. Luckily about half the course was sheltered as it headed uphill through woods. Over the years there have been several parkrun courses here. Now that major works to create a wetlands area have largely been completed, the course has reverted to one lap. The first half is quite challenging before a flat loop through a grassy area leading to a short uphill finish. In places the paths are quite narrow, but it was easy enough to get space to run. VAC members were spread throughout the field. Roger Beardsworth (M60) was our first finisher, in tenth overall. As usual, VAC featured well in the parkrun's age graded list with seven in the top ten. Lucy Woolhouse (W60) was top of the list. Her time of 22:57 achieved an 87% age grading.
Vitality Westminster Mile, VAC One Mile Championships, 27 September 2025
Here are the Results of VAC's One Mile Championship at the Westminster Mile, 27 September 2025 Bright sunshine welcomed at least 44 VAC runners to St James Park for the Westminster Mile. The race is a legacy event from the 2012 London Olympics with many different waves enjoying a wide traffic free route round St James Park. For the last few years VAC has used the early adult waves to host the club’s 1 Mile championships and this year the number of members taking part were the highest they have ever been (25 men and 19 women). Conditions were favourable for fast times. It was cool and still. The start is wide enough to be able to start running at the desired pace straight away. VAC members were highly placed in their categories. Once again Clare Elms was a standout runner, achieving 5:24, only 2 seconds slower than her British W60 age group best set last year. She was the second woman overall. In a similarly outstanding performance, Peter Giles set an M80 British age group best. His gun time of 6:45 was convincingly ahead of the previous mark of 7:05 set by VAC’s Harry Tempan in 2007. Doug Milsom equalled his M85 British age group best of 9:18 set last year. Anna Garnier’s time of 6:35 was just five seconds off Angela Copson’s British W70 best. Altogether 11 members were the fastest in their age groups: Jonathan Hiorns (M35), Mike Forder (M70), Peter Giles (M80), Doug Milsom (M85), Lin Skinner (W45), Nikki Sturzaker (W50), Anna Critchlow (W55), Clare Elms (W60), Anna Garnier (W70), Ros Tabor (W75) and Lesley Bowcott (W80).
VAC 10,000m Championships, Battersea Park, 10 September 2025
Photos from Maggie Statham-Berry Here are the Combined Results and Medallists (PDF) Here are the Results of Each Race (PDF) Here are the Results for each Age Group (PDF) There were 48 finishers in VAC's three races in Battersea Park's Millennium Arena. A cool, damp, evening with a light wind presented good racing conditions. The first race was seeded with the slower runners but the 17 finishers produced good times in some close contests. Fergal Donnelly (M50) won the race in a time of 42:14.6. Lynn Chislett in fourth was the first woman in 45:21.0, taking the W60 Silver. Frank Brennan's fine 47:46.3 gained him the M75 Gold. Maggie Statham Berry's time of 49:39.2 knocked five seconds of the W70 Championship Best Performance set by herself in last year's championship. The second race with 19 finishers was won convincingly by Jani Kraner (M40) in 35:12.2, a time which gave him the M40 Gold medal and would have placed him fourth in the last, fast, race. Clare Elms was the first woman in 38:46.9, a time which, if ratified, would be a new UK and possibly world record. Clare won W60 Gold and the trophy for VAC's first woman. Her time also set a new W60 Championship Best Performance, improving the previous mark of 43:47.5 by five minutes. Her W60 CBP is also a lot faster than the W55 and W50 CBPs. In the third race, Terry Booth (M55) won VAC's men’s 10,000m champion’s title. He was second in the fastest race
with a time of 34:20.4, just under six seconds behind the winner, Julien Tadeusz (M35) of Clapham Chasers who won
the M35 Gold medal. Other age-group Golds were won by Bruce Harrold (M45), Andrew McCarron (M50), Mark Tennyson
(M60), Brian Jones (M65), Aoife Hagarty (W40), Madeleine Armstrong-Plieth (W45) and Fiona Bishop (W65). England Masters Athletics Association Inter-Area Challenge, York, 17 August 2025
The photo of the W60 relay runners is from Lisa Thomas. All other photos (except where specified) are reproduced with the permission of Daniel Williams. Daniel took many great photos at the event. They are free to download for personal use but please give him a credit. Here is the link to Daniel's photo gallery (on Google photos): Inter Area Challenge, 17 August, photos by Daniel Williams. Here are the Team Scores Scores | England Masters AA Outdoors Inter-Area Track & Field Challenge Here are the Results of each Event Results | England Masters AA Outdoors Inter-Area Track & Field Challenge VAC’s team of thirty-three covered most of the 104 track and field events in the annual competition between nine area Masters clubs in England, Scotland and Wales. The venue was the University of York athletics stadium, and the weather was comfortably warm. In the combined men's and women's scores, VAC finished a worthy fourth with 471 points just 16 points behind Eastern Masters and four ahead of North Eastern Masters. The winners were the hosts, Northern Masters, with 713 points, for once beating Midland Masters on 688. VAC recorded 13 first place finishes (nine by the women, four by the men) and were in the top three in 32 events but every place scored a point, and everyone's contribution was equally valued. VAC’s women's team put in an excellent performance to finish third with 250 points, holding off Southern Counties by four points. Lisa Thomas achieved splendid first places in the W60 200m, 400m and 800m races, and a third in the 1500m, gaining 34 points for the team. Clare Elms (W60) down-aged to W50 and bagged two first places in the 1500m and 3000m, winning the latter mixed age-group race outright. Rosalind Zeffertt (W60) also down-aged to W50 and won the Pole Vault event outright. She showed her versatility by scoring well in four other events (HJ, LJ, TJ and Javelin). Anna Garnier won the W70 800m and was second in the 200m as well as doing the 100m and Shot events. Eni Font-Freide won the W60 100m. Eni joined Lisa, Rosalind and Anna in the W60 4x100m relay team which stormed to a fine win late in the day against strong opposition. Many did two or more events with Natalie Mann scoring well in the four W35 throws, Sarah Westrap-Boon covering the W50 sprints, hurdles and relay, Emily Murray covering two W35 jumps and making her debut at the 100m, and Stacey Gonzalez picking up good points in the W50 Shot, Discus and Hammer. VAC’s men’s team had gaps because of unlucky injuries and finished sixth amidst a cluster of four clubs separated by just 19 points. There were four individual wins. In the Long Jump, Richard Weekes and Tim Carter won the M60 and M70 events. Robert Datnow won the M50 800m and Pat Logan won the M60 100m. In a thrilling race, the M60 relay team stormed round to finish second behind the team from Northern Masters which was anchored by Dr Steve Peters, the well-known sports psychiatrist, who had set a new British record in the 100m earlier in the meeting. Most prolific was Bilen Ahmet, a multi-eventer, who did nine events (all the M35 field events and the hurdles), boosting VAC’s score by a massive 49 points. For the M50s, Mark McAllister did seven individual events including track sprints, pole vault, shot, discus and javelin.   Lucy Woolhouse, Grand Prix Winner Steve Corfield, 2nd place
Photo gallery:
VAC 5K 8/7/2025 | Flickr
Please credit Cliff and VAC if sharing his photos
on social media or posting on websites.
Each year, the person with the highest average of
his or her three best age-graded Battersea performances is awarded the Snow Cup, a trophy which dates to
1950.
Nineteen VAC members qualified for the 2025 Grand
Prix. To be eligible, members needed to register times in at least three of the four road
races.
Congratulations to Lucy Woolhouse (W60) the worthy
winner of the 2025 competition with an outstanding average age grading of 90.43%. Steve Corfield (M60) was a
close second with an average of 90.36%. Anna Garnier (W70) was third with an average of 89.74%. She also
achieved the highest age grading for a single race, scoring 91.67% for her record-breaking time of 22:48 in
July’s 5km race.
Thanks go to all the VAC members and open runners
who competed in the races over the summer. Four members were ever-presents, contesting all four races. They
were Mark Tennyson, Peter Lee, Eric Dol and Neil McKeown.
Photos from
Cliff Hide. Please credit Cliff and VAC if sharing his photos on social media or posting on websites. Cliff has more photos of the event. Email him at cliffhide10@aol.com Here are the Race Results online on OpenTrack. Here are theResults of the 5K Road Race including the Category positions (PDF file). There were 95 finishers in VAC's final race of the series in leafy Battersea Park on a lovely summer's evening. Andrew McCarron of Queen's Park Harriers was the winner in a time of 16:25, not far off the M50 course record of 16:11. Philip Cooper (M45) of EMAC was second in 16:45, holding off VAC's Ben Millar (M45) by just one second. There were fine performances from Terry Booth (seventh place, first M55) and Mark Tennyson (fifteenth, first M60). Other age group winners were Kevin McAleer (M65), Paul Sanderson (M70), Frank Brennan (M75), John Carter (M80) and Doug Milsom (M85). Rebecca Piggott (W35) of London Heathside was the women's winner in 17:42, placing ninth overall and close to the W35 course record of 17:35. Next was VAC's Karima Harris in eleventh place in a splendid time of 17:48 which broke her own W55 course record of 17:58 set in June's race. Mary James (W50) was third in 18:27 just one second ahead of Kelly Thorneycroft (W35). Anna Garnier's time of 22:53 again rewrote the W70 course record by knocking nearly thirty seconds off her own record of 23:22 set in April's race. Other age group winners were Elinor Skinner (W45), Lisa Gold (W40), Lucy Woolhouse (W60), Lynn Wilson (W65) and Sue Garner (W75).
Permit No RWA25031-B
Fixture 4
Photos from
Cliff Hide. Please credit Cliff and VAC if sharing his photos on social media or posting on websites. Cliff has more photos of the event. Email him at cliffhide10@aol.com
The last of the regular Battersea Park races also had an
average field on a fine sunny evening, luckily although the temperature was above average there was little
humidity, so the racing conditions were manageable. Her husband, Man Biu Lam, achieved a personal best; both had also raced at the Johnson Bowl 4 miles event in Bromley and Moulton 5 in Suffolk in the previous seven days. Veterans AC were pleased to welcome Cerys Fitzpatrick of Carmarthen Harriers, who did a creditable time and was commended on her style.
Officials:
Octogenarian and Nonagenarian gathering at the Bushy parkrun, 5 July 2025
Six VAC members took part in the annual gathering of the over 80s at Bushy parkrun. The event was founded in 2017 by George Frogley and VAC honorary member, Richard Pitcairn-Knowles, to encourage the over 80’s to celebrate their age and be proud of their participation in Bushy Park, the home of parkrun. On that occasion in 2017, there were 15 runners over 80. Each year, the numbers have increased, with 71 present last year. An aim has been to assemble over 100 octo- and nonagenarians at the parkrun. This was achieved magnificently at the eighth edition of the event this year when 117 of them were amongst the 1667 finishers at the 1044th parkrun at Bushy parkrun. Prosecco, cupcakes and a bespoke medal were their rewards as well as pride, camaraderie and friendship in abundance. There were 90 finishers aged 80-84, 20 aged 85-89, five aged 90-94 and two aged 95-99. There were 86 men and 31 women. VAC’s Peter Giles (M80) was the fastest of them all in a record time of 24:17 (88.74% age grading), a minute ahead of the second M80. VAC’s Michael Johnson was fourth in a time of 26:15 and an age-grading of 86.74%. In the M85-89 age group, Joe Aspinall clocked a time of 37:22 which was second fastest. Pauline Rich was third In the W80-84 age group. Other VAC members present were John Carter (M80), a good ninth in the M80s, and Bill O’Connor, new to the M80 age group.
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