Chingford League 2025/26 – Great start under the floodlights
On Tuesday 6th October, Loughton AC hosted the opening Chingford League match of 2025-26. The fixture under floodlights at the Olympic Velodrome is fast becoming a fan favourite, with a huge field of over 800 runners competing from the 12 participating clubs.
The Chingford League consists of 6 locally based fixtures (Oct-Mar). It offers competitors a mixture of midweek and weekend fixtures at local venues with differing terrains. VeloPark will be used twice this season (next 10th December) due to refurb work at Hogg Hill. Fixtures at Epping Forest (17th Jan) and Trent Park (22nd Nov) are classic muddy cross-country locations. The fixture at Dagenham (1st Nov) is on park trails and at Victoria Park (February) it’s back to the tarmac.
The league offers something for all abilities. From beginners to experienced racers, with clubs in pursuit of team honours and athletes contesting individual medals over the six fixtures. There is also an award for completing all six fixtures (highly sought after mugs and coasters).
In the individual competition athletes score points depending on their place in each race. The race winner scores 20 points. The runner-up scores 19 points. The athlete in 20th scores 1 point. At the end of the season an athlete’s points from their best 5 race results are added up. The winner is the athlete with highest number of points.
The League competition is based on the score of a club's first four athletes to finish in each race. This is known as the “A” team. The club with the highest scoring “A” team at each fixture scores 20 points. The club with highest number of points in total over all 6 fixtures (not including relays) wins the league.
The Course
The Velopark is a hilly but smooth tarmac course. U11s and U13s run a loop of 2km. U15-Seniors run 5km. Weather conditions were good.
Senior Men – 5km
342 Senior Men competed. Last year’s winner Sam MacAulay (London Heathside) was once again home first in 15mins 10s. First home for Woodford was William Muffett (8th) who looked strong. With a good group around him he ran an excellent 16mins 11s. Alfie Ward (10th) opened his account for the season with an excellent time of 16mins 13s closely followed by Aidan O’Driscoll (13th). This was all three boys’ debuts in senior races having moved up from U17. Tony Pamphilon (V60) was 171st in 20mins 38s with teammate Paul Stockings (V60) in 242nd in 22mins 59s closing the team.
Senior Women – 5km
225 Senior Women competed. Jade Dos Santos (VPH) won in 17mins 59s. Lauren Evans (21st) was first home for Woodford in 20mins 27s and over 30s quicker than her debut last season on this course. Winter team Manager Kate Stockings (62nd) ran 22mins 40s. Holly Huddleston (87th) made her Chingford debut running an excellent 23mins 37s. Matilda Frith (105th) also made her debut in the senior race running 24mins 09s.
U17 Girls
12 U17s competed. Jasmine Hall returned to running from national swimming duties with a splash winning the race in 19mins 33s. Teammate Isla Fulling was second running an excellent 20mins 19s. Alice Padian (3rd) completed a clean sweep of the podium for Woodford’s girls running 23mins 54s. Fiona Yip completed the A team in 24mins 43s with Eni Fadahunsi (6th) in 26mins and Anna Jaramillo Ocowska (7th) in 27mins 18s opening their season accounts.
U15 Girls
16 U15s competed. Jagna Falkowska (Trent Park) won the race in 19mins 39s. Woodford’s Chloe Summers ran a PB of 20mins 39s to lead the team home. This was a big step forward for Chloe who is making good progress. Teammate Sophia Parker was third in 21mins 25s, also a PB.
Close behind was Rosie Muffett (5th) running 23mins 49s with teammates Marissa Higgs-Smith (6th) in 23mins 51s, Emilia Kozinska (8th) in 24mins 12s, Isla Barron (10th) in 25mins 02s, Nia Patel (11th) in 25mins 03s and Aoife Pearce in 25mins 28s flooding through the finish. The girls all ran close to or beat their times over 5km from last season. This is a good sign.
U15 Boys
Robin Greenwood (Trent Park) set a course record of 16mins 17s to win the race from second placed Amor Zanaya (Enfield), just ahead of Woodford’s Eric Frith (3rd) in 17mins 57s. This was a good run from Eric. He is training well and is very at home over this distance on the tarmac.
Debutant Adam Findlay (6th) ran well for 19:39. Adam joined this summer and is making good progress. Woody Qureshi (7th), our hockey playing, footballing runner made a welcome appearance. He ran an excellent 19mins 40s in his first 5km stepping up from U13s last season. Zachary Freedman (9th) was also pleased with his run. He had been sick out on the course such was the effort he put in to break his PB. Thomas Nicholls (10th) opened his season with a 20:34 and looked good, as did debutant Declan O'Brien (16th) who ran 22:52 in his first race for the club since joining last month.
U13 Girls
55 U15 Girls competed in this 2km race, and it was a dominant performance from Woodford. Chloe Ward continued from her great track season, running 7:21 to win the race, and looking strong throughout in a great group with teammates Grace Cherry (2nd) in 7:24 and Poppy Barker (3rd) in 7:25 making it a clean sweep of the podium.
Lottie Oates (4th) got her season off to a good start, running 7:35 with teammates Maia Lalani (5th) running 7:42, Phoebe Quorn (6th) in 7:44, Rosie Barron (7th) in 7:45, Sophia Stephenson (8th) in 7:47 and Phoebe Woods (10th) – 7:59 all finishing in the top ten.
The girls did not finish there as Isabella Lake (11th) in 8:16, Kehanique Lowe (13th) in 8:45, Rosie Anderson (14th) in 8:45, Ava Pugh (15th) in 8:48, Emilia Herbert (16th) in 08:52, Jessica Dawkes (17th) in 08:54, Sophia Khan (18th) in 9:09 made the top 20. Jessica Daza (21st) in 9:16, Hattie Davies (22nd) in 9:18, Sarah Ramdane (23rd) in 9:21, Karima Hussain (26th) in 9:51, Kaina Uddin (27th) in 9:52, Ayda O'Driscoll (28th) in 10:56 and Clementina Monti (29th) – 11:21 all sweeping through the line. Many of the U13 girls are multi eventers who just love competing as a team and use winter for fitness and to keep that competitive spirit going!
U13 Boys
Henry Richards carried on his form from the track. Henry ranked 9th in the UK over 1200m in 2025 and ran 6:47 to win the race, 12 seconds ahead of second placed Werthern-Pilch (Eton Manor). Jack Tonge (3rd) ran an equally impressive 7:03. Jack is lower year U13 and showing real promise. Fresh from YDL National Finals, Ashton Jokhiya (7th) opened his winter with an excellent 7:32 closely followed by debutant Maximilian Tharratt (8th) running 7:34 in his first race for the club since joining in August.
Another new joiner, Dilan Chauhan (11th) 7:50 led a pack of Woodford boys home with Luca Cook (12th) in 7:52, Patrick Langan (13th) in 8:03, Lukas Sendar (14th) in 8:08, Alfie Perkins (15th) in 8:15, Arlo Barron-Smith (17th) in 8:21 and Noah Parker (19th) in 8:50 and Joseph Hassard (20th) in 8:56 dominating the top 20 with Kai Patel (21st) 9:09, Finley Witchell (24th) in 9:52 and Jovan Patel (25th) running 10:15 to complete the team.
U11 Boys
Raphael Thomas (1st) opened his season with a great run winning the race in 7:29. With teammate Jesse Geller (2nd) running 7:38 for second place. The two boys were well out in front of third placed Harry Simkin (Loughton) who completed the podium positions.
Woodford’s Noah Gavin (4th) was just behind the leaders clocking 8:01 and heading a pack of WGEL athletes including Theodore Burke (5th) in 8:05, Seth Fayinka (6th) in 8:11, Josiah Sulola (7th) in 8:12, James Sambridge (8th) in 8:13, Dylan Tharratt (9th) in 8:15 and Zachary Paktsun (10th) all in the top ten.
Sam Spence (11th) was fractionally outside the top ten with Dominic Daza (13th) in 8:25, followed by George Davies (15th) and Dylan Williams (16th), both clocking 8:29 and Charlie Tonge (17th) in 8:37 and Hugh Hung (18th) making the top 20. Luke Bachmann (21st) ran 8:43, just ahead of Michael Berry (23rd) in 8:49. Rex Quorn (26th) and Jack Williams (27th) both dipped under 9 minutes, running 8:59 and 9:00 respectively.
Samuel Etheridge (28th) ran 9:03, followed by Ben Welsford (29th) James Tattersall (30th) in 9:08 and Miles Czeczotka (32nd) in 9:11. Another debutant, Ethan Porter (33rd), ran 9:14 with William Taylor (34th) ran 9:18, Stanley Perkins (35th) ran 9:20. Alfred Philpotts (37th) ran 9:23 and Harry Davies (39th) closed the team in 9:28.
These were all exceptional opening runs from the boys with many making their debuts and stepping up from WASP age groups (U9)
U11 Girls
Esme Cherry took a big stride forward, winning her first league race running 8:38 to lead Woodford girls home. Kaya Affleck (2nd) was just behind with a terrific run of 8:44 with teammate Nola Glover-Hammond (3rd) clocking 8:53 to secure a full house at the top of the podium for the team.
Deedee Brittain (5th) was just behind the lead pack, running 9:01 followed Adriana McNally (6th) in 9:13 with Dulcie Qureshi (7th) ran 9:21, with Emme Marrable (8th) and Lula Qureshi (9th) finishing together in 9:30 and 9:31 respectively packing the top 10.
Francesca Lyons (11th) ran 9:39, leading a group of girls including, Alana Ridley Harrison (15th) ran 9:59, Amelie Fabian (18th) posted 10:10, and Anna Spence (20th) ran 11:23 in her first league race. Sofia Lalani (21st), Emmy Cormack (23rd), and Arya Amin (24th) all finished within seconds of each other to close out the team.
This was a brilliant performance from the girls and congratulations to all the coaches, young athlete helpers and assistants on the progress they are making as a team.
Summary
It was a terrific night of racing under the floodlights. The venue makes for a great atmosphere and it was a brilliant way to kick start the winter season.
Next Chingford League fixture is 1st Nov (Dagenham).