Author: Ian Richards
This was the 13th edition of the Horwich BMAF 5k race walk, on Sunday 16th June. The event started with a one minute tribute to Fred Pearce who was a long standing official at the event. Eight walkers new to the event started and all walked stylishly well, perhaps showing the way to a few of the more established walkers. There was a fast start to the race and the field very quickly became spread out before being surrounded up by the 5K runners who also share this event.
Patrick Murphy of Eire established a small lead over Ian Richards (Steyning AC) on the first lap with Tony Taylor (Lancs) a little way behind. They kept this order until the end, but Ian Richards had the honour of winning the age graded award with 97.6%.
In the ladies race, Carolyn Derbyshire led from the start and battled for the three laps with Bill McFadden (Scotia’s top male walker). Our first timer Wendy Kane finished in second, just missing out on the thirty minute mark on the hilly course. Julie Bellfield walked consistently to come home in a very respectable time for third. There were very high age graded score from both Noel Blatchford and Ann Wheeler.
Most improved athlete on the day went to Gerard McConnell, who bettered his time of last year by 5 minutes, showing his hard training over the year has paid off! Unfortunately it wasn’t enough however to lift Scotland above Eire or winners England on the age graded international scoring.
Results : https://bmaf.org.uk/british-masters-5k-road-walk-championships/