Waveney Valley Athletic Club took six teams, consisting of six runners per team, to the Ekiden relay event last Sunday. Staged at Woodbridge School on a very hot day and organised very efficiently by Ipswich Jaffa R.C., the event was a sell-out with 200 teams competing.
The event has its origins in Japan and the marathon distance of 26.2 miles is covered by six runners in relay legs. It is one of the most popular on the regional fixture list with all of the competing clubs gazebo’s providing a colourful display.
Last year, Waveney’s mixed team were victors in their category, setting a record time in the process but this time they were pipped to first place by just over two minutes by Ipswich Jaffa who set a new best time of 2.37:26 to Waveney’s 2.39:34. WVAC times: Chris Pimlott Leg 1 (7.2k) 27:49, Harriet Lyman Leg 2 (5k) 21:17, Karim Ouaddane Leg 3 (10k) 39:03, Dylan Neeve Leg 4 (5k) 19:03, Matt Jeffries Leg 5 (10k) 33:27, Samantha Lines Leg 6 (5k) 18:57.
A category victory also eluded Waveney’s over 60’s team who lost out to Woodbridge Shufflers by a even smaller margin of 33 seconds after more than three and a half hours of running. Waveney’s time was 3.36:59 compared to the winners’ 3.36:26. The six overall team placings for Waveney were 7th, 39th, 114th, 120th, 156th and 169th.

At the Wroxham 5k series race 3 on July 5, Sam Lines finished 2nd lady and 2nd in the Norfolk County 5k championships. She was placed 39th overall in a personal best 17:48. Jon Andrews finished 374th in 24:07. Three members took part in the Lord Mayors 5k in Norwich on July 8. Matt Jeffries was 11th in 15:53, Chris Pimlott 70th in 18:08 and Liam Nudd 113th in 19:10.
Lisa Knights travelled to the South Downs in Sussex to compete in ‘ The Race to the King’, an ultra distance event that covered a distance of 53.5 miles. She completed the hilly – or in Lisa’s words ‘ mountainous ‘ – race in a time of 11 hours 37 minutes 54 seconds. Also competing for Waveney in the race was David Joyce. On July 9, David and Angela Mower took part in the New Forest 10 mile event and crossed the finish line in times of 1.28:38 and 2.11:03 respectively.