W/E 16.11.24 - Sportlink GP Awards Night

Last but not least on this week’s review is the Sportlink Grand Prix Series award night;

**Sportlink GP series awards**

We had a great turnout on the evening – all unrecognisable in formalwear and not the standard lycra & trainers we are accustomed to seeing them in!

First up we look back at our winners from the year, well done to; Claire Woodcroft 1st🥇F40-44, Lisa Greengrass 2nd🥈F45-49, Claire Brown 1st🥇F60-64, Eva Osborne 2nd🥈 F75+, Ben Beynon 3rd🥉Senior Male, Chris Gay 2nd🥈 M40-44, Kevin Holland 3rd🥉 M45-49, Chris Bullock 1st M50-54, Billy Wheeler 2nd🥈M50-54 (only 6 points separating Chris & Billy), Ian Moore 3rd🥉M55-59, Yitzhak Ben-Aroya 1st🥇M65-69, Tim Seville 2nd🥈 M65-69, Stephen Dady 2nd🥈M70-74 & Graham Walsh 1st🥇M75+.

Up next are our winners in the postal marathon awards; Harriet Carr was 2nd🥈Senior Women for her amazing time of 2:51:09 at the Berlin marathon, Louise McDonnell was 1st🥇F45-49 (3:00:07) for her efforts at the Abingdon marathon & Claire Brown was 1st🥇 F60-64 (3:26:15) for her run in April at the London marathon. Also from the London Marathon James Fowler clocked up a time of 2:45:08 to finish 2nd🥈 M45-49 & Jon Shorten was 1st🥇 M55-59 (3:03:59) for his effort in Valencia.

We also nabbed three of the new awards to top off the night; Kim Reader was one of the two ‘Volunteers of the year’ for all her hardwork in and outside of WAC – howeverwe all know Kim for her amazing 10 years as WAC head coach included in her 25 years as a coach which has helped many WACers over the years.

Aidan Banfield scooped one of the top prize of the night as he was crowned Male Road runner of the year for his 7 🎖personal bests🎖 throughout the year which encompassed 6 new WAC 🏅club records🏅 and was exemplified by his time of 2:27:49 at the Berlin Marathon; breaking into the top 200 overall and 58th within his age category at the major marathon.

Last but not least was the fan’s favourite; Kevin Simpson who scooped the first ever Newcomer of the Year award. A popular (and loud) member within the WAC training nights – Kevin joined in January and his running has gone from strength to strength, epitomised by his March 10k time of 49mins decreasing to a sub-40, reported last week, at the George Munday 10k. In addition Kevin took off 24minutes in two months from his 1hr 58min half marathon time from the Yarmouth half in August to his 1hr 34min at the Blickling half in October.

Well done to all our members that won awards on the night for their amazing efforts throughout the year! 🙌🏻🙌🏻

#TeamWAC 💜🤍💜🤍