A reminder that SAC has an hour pooltime booked on Sunday evening from 19.30-20.30. This is open to anyone, and is reasonably free format. There are coaches there – if you want advice, or just do your own thing. £3.00 per swim (optional 60p for homemade goodies supplied by Sarah!).

Southwater lake is (hopefully) now warm enough to swim in. We shall be there on Monday – 18.00 to 19.30. £10 per person per year. You need a wetsuit and a yellow hat (I’ll bring a supply of hats). If the weather is good I’ll be cycling up – leaving shortly after 17.00. Let me know if you want to cycle with us.

We are pleased to announce that the annual Steyning Athletic Club Schools Walk will return for its 29th year on the 16th June 2012. Once again being held in the grounds of Steyning Grammar School.

Volunteers are needed at this year’s Schools Walk to help with the setting up for the course, marshalling, and providing the refreshments. Volunteers would need to arrive for 1.30pm. If anyone does wish to assist, they can contact Malcolm Geal on the following details;

Home: 01903 813444
Mobile: 07711660633
email: malcolmgeal@live.co.uk

Three walkers from Steyning AC travelled out to Jyvaskyla, Finland, recently to compete in the World Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships, it also included the Outdoor 10Kms Walking Championships. All had successful races and came away with 2 silver, 1 bronze individual medals, and 3 Gold Team medals.
That part of Finland has been suffering from unusually low temperatures for this time of the year, the temperature going down to -11c at night and only just creeping above freezing during the day, a couple of days before the walkers went out they had 12″ of snow most of which was still lying around.
In the indoors 3Kms track races Ian Richards in the 60-64 age category had a great scrap for most of the race with Patrice Brochott of France, and only lost out on the last lap to the Frenchman who won in 14m-15.85s Ian finishing second in 14m-21.07s. In the 70-74 year age group Ron Penfold was a little disappointed to only finish 5th in 17m-22.36s while Dave Stevens had a good race in the 75-79 age group finishing 6th in 20m-13.93s.
In the Outdoor 10Kms which was held on a 1Km lap alongside a frozen lake with the temperature hovering just above freezing Ian again had another great race with the Frenchman in the 60 age group, again just losing out to the Frenchman who finished first in 49m-54s to Ian’s 50m-10s, in the 70 age group Ron had a better race and finished in 3rd spot in 59m 25s, in the 75 age group Dave again finished 6th in 70m 29s.
In the team races the Steyning walkers all featured in Great Britain Teams, because of the way countries are allowed to drop athletes down from higher age groups to make up teams Ian dropped down to the 55-59 age group and lead the G. B. team to victory after a very close contest. 1st Great Britain 2h 45m 28s, 2nd Germany 2h 46m 14s, 3rd Russia 2h 46m 24s. Dave also dropped down an age group to help Ron lead the G. B. team to victory in the 70 age group. 1st Great Britain 3h 24m 04s, 2nd Ukraine 3h 23m 59s, 3rd Latvia 3h 31m 19s.

Kind Regards
RonP

OK update on the Trisuits and vests;

Trisuits;
I expect to receive your suits at the end of April in time for the Steyning Triathlon on 6th May. There was some confusion on the cost of the suits which is now back to the original £65 for the Zone3 suit (not the Aquaflow which is £115…). The names of people I have down along with their size, is as follows;

Simon Turk – L
Rob Walton – L
Joan Lennon – S
Lee Oxley – L
Carol Killock – XS
Amanda Oxley – XS
Shane Bridgman – L
Sue FD – L
Peter Lane – L
Nigel McAllister – L
Brian Mason – L
Adrian Brown – S
Moyra – S
Mike Miller – L
Jon FD – M
Gary Brind – L
Mark Tyler – M

If anyone wants to cancel/amend their order for what ever reason, or be added to this list let me know before Sunday 25th March. (Note the MOQ is 10pcs, so I cant see myself ordering more trisuits for a long time – maybe 2 years???).

Please can you arrange to give me a cheque for £65 payable to Steyning AC, which I need sooner rather than later. If you commit to purchase (which you can still change your mind as mentioned above), then you need to cough up the money, I don’t want to hear anyone moaning to me that they will pay next year or in instalments of £1 per month bla bla bla or I will send Martin Hesketh to hunt you down!).

Vests;
A lot of you have been asking me about getting hold of a new running vests. I will be placing an initial order at the end of next week, so can you please let me know if you would like a new running top, so I can get a rough idea of numbers for the first order? (There will be men’s and women’s specific versions). The cost of the new vest is £16.

Thanks
Gary Brind

SAC’s Olympic race walker, Ian Richards, has been chosen to be an Olympic Torchbearer and will be carrying the torch on July 16th in Midhurst.  This selection is not just because of his walking success but because of his inspirational story and the work he has done over the last 30 years with youngsters.

Ian left school at 18 and the only sporting success to his name was a certificate for 3rd place in a wheelbarrow race. He took up running after leaving school to lose weight and keep fit.  By chance he discovered race walking, found that he wasn’t too bad at it and stuck with it. 10 years later he got his first GB vest.  He was a member of the GB team for 5 years competing in a European and two World Championships with the highlight being the 1980 Olympics in Moscow where he finished 11th in the 50km walk. He believes that everyone can be very good at something, they just have to find it and then stick at it. Being no good as a youngster is not a barrier. Its never too late and if he could do there is no reason why others shouldn’t.

As an Olympian Ian has always felt a responsibility to share his experience to motivate others to be the best that they can be.  He has been working with children and teenagers for the last 30 years mostly with the Salvation Army and has been doing athletics coaching at sports camps in inner city areas for a number of years.

Just a reminder that the club has booked the leisure centre swimming pool for an hour every Sunday evening (19.30-20.30). This session is open to all members. Either come and do your own thing, or ask one of the coaches if you want a swim set to work through.

Cost – £3.00 for adults, £2.00 for juniors.