Another special day on our calendar, come Saturday, May 10th. Louise and Eric have confirmed that the church hall will be available for the Dave Crompton 7 mile Memorial race at Chorley. As usual, it will be very helpful if you could let Dave Evans at dave.evans08@hotmail.co.uk know if you are able to attend and in what capacity. The event will start at 1.00 p.m. The venue will be the St Peter’s Church Hall, Harpers Lane, PR6 0HP. Eric will have the hall open by noon.

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Adrian Edwards informs that training sessions on the track in Stockport are planned for Sunday 18th May and Sunday 22nd June. Unfortunately, due to track usage and two weekend races in July it might not be possible to find a July date.

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Following the news of the reduction to one only distance for the walks in Los Angeles, LOS ANGELES 2028 : ONLY THE HALF-MARATHON WALK! and the comments of Sreve Uttley, we’ve received further thoughts.

Adrian Edwards

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all sit down together and discuss this around a table laden with Easter eggs this weekend?

I was disappointed to see the end of the 50k; the 35k was a poor substitute. Especially when you see the same people winning 20 and 35k in a championship. The extra few kilometres make a big difference. I don’t know if you follow Cameron Curbishley; but just before the 50k demise he broke Chris Maddocks British record. He isn’t quite quick enough to make a major games over 20k, but looks a good bet for the longer distances. Athletes like him will miss out if there’s only a 20/21k.

I’ve had a triathlete in this week who’s aiming for a sub 3hour marathon. I have Ivano Brugnetti’s shirt on my office wall. (Olympic gold 2004 – 20k). He was gobsmacked when I suggested the top walkers will be close to 3 hour marathon.

Initially I wasn’t too happy about getting rid of the 50k; but have come around to thinking because it’s a distance people can relate too, it may work out. If lots of people start walking marathons and beating runners; and shoe companies MAKE MONEY out of specialist walking shoes then things will change.

Dave Evans

The Olympics are not what they were ! Once we entered the realms of professional sport the rot set in. How does break dancing fit into sport ? The fundamental principles of competition were changing as society developed performance enhancing drugs and similar aids not all of which were available to all participants. Entertaining the public by incorporating catchy themes and colourful characters has overridden the original concept. Why do they still run the marathon if they have decided to shorten the walking programme ? I feel sorry for the 50k specialists who have to contend for places in a “sprint”event ! I suspect walking will disappear from the programme in due course because it isn’t entertaining enough.

Steve Uttley

Thanks for your email and report and for publishing my comments in full. They were of course written a few weeks before the IOC decision, which I haven’t had time to process. It is indeed a blow. My initial reaction is that it is an entirely negative development. That said I also believe that had World Athletics stuck to 20 and 50 kms (for World Championships), the IOC would simply have got rid of the 50 kms rather than the marathon. The aim is clearly one walk. At best. I hope WA will stick with 2 walks in their championships.

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Further to PARKWALK – A MESSAGE FROM THE RWA PRESIDENT, which encouraged participation in the popular Parkrun initiative on April 26th, we’ve received the following:

Tony Bell

I highly recommend this. I racewalk my local Millhouses parkrun in Sheffield every now and then, I often combine this with being a “parkwalk” volunteer. I start at the back and work my way through at racewalk speed, encouraging anyone else who is walking (and passing lots of runners). This gives me a another parkrun and a volunteer credit on the same day.

Peter Fawkes

Marion and I volunteer every Saturday and we often get people race walking it. Marion even gave a training session to a group of runners who were entering a marathon but were not sure if they could run the whole distance without stopping. The session encouraged them to race walk when running became too hard rather than stop. A number of athletes have taken the advice and due to Marions demonstrations, have found it beneficial.

Stephen Walker

I was Race Director at our local event in Llangollen (Old Railway Line) and besides making a special mention about next weekend, we have organised publicity on local social media. Good luck to everyone, trying to raise the profile

Alex Rowe

 I have been parkwalking for around 9 months now, usually every week, I am certainly planning to walk the Fleetwood Promenade on April 26th.

Tony Taylor

By chance the Parkrun I support here on Crete took place also on April 26th. The 5 km circular lap follows bamboo and pine shaded tracks through the olive and orange groves, which hug the banks of the snow-cooled river Koiliaris. It is picturesque with the White Mountains looming in the background. As it is I’ve only run there once in March 2024 before the hernia operation which seemed to herald a year of relative misfortune. Hence over the last twelve months I have been a devoted and diligent marshal. On this particular occasion almost 40 folks started, about half of whom ran.The rest proceeded in a relaxed bent-kneed manner, accompanied by a dog or two. It would be impossible to race walk the course, given the uneven and stone-strewn nature of the surfaces.

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ENGLAND ATHLETICS

Roy Gunnett reports.

After a huge amount of work, both the club and members are now registered with England Athletics for the April 2025 to April 2026 year. Thus the club and our members are insured. The extra work is because of all the new rules England Athletics has put in place.

We owe an enormous thank you to Greg Smith who volunteered to be our Welfare Officer. This is a mandatory position – non compliance would mean our club and members being excluded from England Athletics. Greg successfully completed 2 courses, namely Adult Welfare and Safeguarding plus he acquired the necessary DBS status.