G R I F F E N 2 0 2 3 | 2 9 Henry Hart (2015) Henry was the winner of the 2022 Abingdon Marathon on Sunday 23 October. Having been knocked off his bike in the weeks leading up to the London Marathon, Henry was forced to withdraw from the race he had been preparing for over the summer months. Luckily he recovered in time for Oxfordshire’s premier marathon three weeks later, albeit with disrupted preparation. Having broken the 31 minute mark for 10km during training, Henry had hoped to run close to 2:25, but with heavy rain and a few weeks off with a hip injury, a sub-2:30 clocking was looking a distant prospect. Henry ran with Welshman Martin Green and Stefano Federici from St. Albans in the opening 12 miles before breaking away to take the win in 2:33:49. Through the streets of Drayton and Sutton Courtenay, the former Abingdon School XC runner was cheered on by former team-mate Alex Miell-Ingram (2016) whose brothers are lighting up the school distance running circuit for Abingdon. Dave Parsons, Henry’s speed coach while at school and former winner of the Abingdon Marathon presented the prizes as the torrential rain cleared. Charlie Atkinson (2020) After his childhood club Wasps rugby went into administration, Charlie has recently joined the reigning premiership champions Leicester Tigers on a long term deal. This not-so-distant move up the M1 sees him join highly experienced players such as Handre Pollard (Rugby World Cup 2019 winner with South Africa) and a familiar face in Jimmy Gopperth allowing him to further develop his rugby career in many ways. Although he was forced to leave Wasps which he joined at 12 years old, he has settled in nicely, including three appearances to date and a smooth transition into a cosy house near the centre of Leicester, still full of Ikea furniture waiting to be built! He is enjoying the intense training and slight modification of rugby style under the meaningful influence of Steve Borthwick and is looking forward to seeing where his career goes in the near future. Adrian Stores (1983) Adrian, former 1st XV Rugby and Captain of Athletics at Abingdon, established Stockport Volleyball from scratch in 2015. It is now one of the fastest growing clubs in the sport in the United Kingdom. This pride in growing numbers is matched by performances on the courts. Its men won the National Shield run by Volleyball England last year and this year are aiming for promotion to the Super League (elite ‘10’). The women were promoted from Division 3 to 2 in their inaugural year last year too. Now they seek to clothe the sport with a new garment brand ‘VOILA – Volleyball is Life Attire’. Peter Eccles (1977) Having completed his first and ‘last’ marathon in 2012 aged 53 which took over 5 hours, Peter decided to enter the London Marathon again in 2022, aged 63, in honour of his niece who died in June and to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK. He completed it in 4h 56m taking 6 minutes off his time from 10 years ago and raised, with the help of many kind supporters including some great friends and OAs, over £7500. “Nice to know that those punishment runs around the Park, enforced Lock Course races and occasional Cross Country events from 1976-77 eventually paid off!” Nick Moffatt (2000) Photo courtesy of The Abingdon Marathon Six months ago Nick moved to a newly created role with Surfing England, the national governing body for surfing: ‘Lead coaching & qualifications’. Nick and the team are designing new training for the modern coach ready for the workplace, which will equip them with more skills and multi-disciplinary career routes. English surfers are starting to achieve podium positions at some European and world events and there are some amazing coaches. Since becoming an Olympic sport, UK Sport now funds British surfing, and Nick is hoping that Surfing England will also receive funding from Sport England soon. It is expected that ‘adaptive surfing’ will become a Paralympic sport for LA2028 and currently the English team boasts a world champion blind surfer (10% vision in one eye , the other zero vision) and they desperately need funding to be able to attend world events. Nick would welcome anyone interested to add him on LinkedIn where he shares updates from Surfing England.
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