09/07/2026
VETERANS’ LEAGUE MATCH 4: Sunday 5th July
Report: Sue Francis
Reading AC’s officials and veteran athletes did the Club proud at the fourth and final Veterans League match, their home fixture at Palmer Park, on a very hot Sunday afternoon. Not only did we stage an excellent match that was appreciated by the seven other participating clubs, but, with 13 wins, we achieved our best result of the reason, both the women’s and men’s teams finishing 3rd. What’s more, two Club records were broken.
The team got off to a great start with the 100m races – a W35 race win for Monia Conforti (14.0s), a W50 win for Leanne Wellings (14.3s), and 2nd places for both Alan Chan (M35A, 12.5s) and Ken Chan (M35B, 13.2s). In the 800m, Sarah Holmes made a return from injury and illness to take 3rd in the W35 A-race (2:38.5), Rachel Phillips smashed her own target to clock 2:52.0 (3rd W35B), and Sue Francis clocked a season’s best of 2:39.0 for 2nd W50. Máté Lorincz took 6 secs off his 800m PB in finishing 4th in the M35A race (2:31.4). Tony McCreery (M70) set a fine example to his younger team-mates as he volunteered to fill gaps in the 800m and 400m in addition to his usual throwing events. Tony was 5th in the M50 8000m against men 20 years his junior (3:19.0).
Kevin Cranmer had a very busy afternoon. Having already helped with pre-match set-up of the field events, he competed in three, securing excellent wins in the M35 javelin (34.14m), and pole vault (3.00m), and 3rd in the discus (25.93m). Kev was joined in the throws by Tony, who impressed with a win in the M60 javelin (21.78m) and 5th place in discus (19.90m). Other good field event wins for Reading AC came from Alan Chan (M35 long jump, 10.52m) and Julie Wilson (W60 discus, 22.99m). Julie also competed in the shot, where she was joined by Lee Fellowes, both securing 2nd places (Lee W35, 6.54m; Julie W50 8.70m). Lee is another great team-player who took on two further field events, triple jump (3rd W35, 5.84m) and 5th discus (13.98m).
Back on the track, the 400m races were next up, and two women’s Club records were broken! Leanne took 0.1s off the W50 Club record with 70.7s (3rd W50), while Sophie Crumly, usually a middle-distance runner, showed she has a great turn of speed, winning the W35 A-race to break the W35 record by 2.2s (61.6s). Lucy Daniells had a good run in the W35 B-race for 3rd (74.8s). Our men ran equally well, Jonathan Hiorns victorious in the M35 A-race (55.5s), Alan runner-up M35B (60.1s), and Tony 5th in the M60 race (91.0s).
Reading AC had a clean sweep in the women’s 3000m. Anna Godfrey led from gun to finish to be the outright race winner and 1st W35A in 11:06.7; Angel Langlade, competing in the 3000m for the first time, had a great run for 1st W35B (12:42.2), and Sue was 1st W50 (12:00.9). In the men’s race, Sandeep Simon ran well for 5th M35A (10:44.3), while Máté did well to break 11 minutes on tired legs (10:59.7, 4th M35B). Michael Twomey had a great race for 2nd M60 (11:47.3).
The final events were the 4x200m relays, where both our men and women had fantastic races. Alan, Ken, and Jonathan, with Kev on leg 4, won the men’s race in 1:44.4, leaving pre-race favourites Oxford City AC 1.5 s adrift. Oxford’s team manager said later how impressed he was by our men’s team! Reading’s women (Monia, Lucy, Anna, and Leanne) also ran brilliantly to finish 2nd (2:03.9).
It was a great end to a good season, where Reading AC’s women finished 3rd overall in the league and the men 4th.
Thank you to all who competed and all who officiated or helped for Reading AC (and co-hosts Reading Roadrunners) for their hard work to ensure the match went smoothly: Julie Dew, Helen Apsey, Chris Apsey (field team), Sarah Urwin-Mann, Richard Whybrow, Emily Whybrow, Ann Gordon, Sam Whalley (track team), Neil Walker, Derrick Nixon (starting team), Mark Balchin, Julie Rayfield, David Noble (timekeepers), Kevin Cranmer (field event set-up), Lincoln Ball (results spreadsheets and field cards set-up), Malcolm Francis (photos), Tony Page and Ian Giggs (results) and Toni McQueen (refreshments).
