Club News

Olympic’s walkers were part of the inaugural national Ekiden Race Walking Relay held at the NZ International Campus, Trentham, Sunday 27 May. On a cloudless, warm day Colleen Singleton, Vishme Heleratne, Connie May Nisbet, Carol Brieseman, Dorothy Nisbet and Vivienne Bott completed the six leg relay, 42.195k, in 5hr 34.30. Carol walked the fastest 2.5k lap in 17.30 minutes. Congratulations Carol.

Special mention was made at the prize giving of Vishme as the youngest walker in the event.

At the dinner on Saturday evening the remark was made that there would be 200 competitors and not a runner in sight! But, not so. One competitor came close to having his team disqualified due to his not maintaining contact, or ‘lifting’ in race walk lingo.

Craig Barrett, the guest speaker at the dinner, shared some interesting snippets from his long walking career. He is now keeping fit by biking. Craig fired the gun to get the race underway on Sunday morning.



Seven teams walked in the A Division, which were judged on IAAF Race Walking Rules. The 26 B Division teams, or freestyle walkers, were judged for lifting only. In my first opportunity to act as a walk judge I saw the skill of the competent race walker and how many competitors were working to improve their walking style.

We thank Olympic Harriers for supporting the Club’s walkers in this event and, in particular, thank Chris Speakman for making sure the Club had a presence with the tent and flag.

We also thank Bart Jones and David Lonsdale from Scottish for getting the event up and running and arranging superb sponsorship, particularly from New Balance. Bart is very encouraging to Olympic walkers – we all know that at least one strong team from each Club makes a good competition.

Olympic now has a strong walking group, whose next major relay will be the Marton to Wanganui relay on 8 September – 10 legs over 66 kms.

Colleen Singleton

::[Photos]::[Results]::