won our 100 miles. The only other woman to finish was Jill Green who became 1 of 10 new Centurions. Earlier in the year Richard and Sandra Brown had both completed the Paris - Colmar race, where Sandra finished second for the third year in succession. At the general meeting held in October, John Keown C473 was elected as a Vice-President and confirmation was given that the 1993 race, organised by the Metropolitan Police with assistance from the Surrey Walking Club, would be a 200 km/24 hour event and a qualifying race for the Paris - Colmar event. At their annual reunion in Holland, the Dutch Centurions for the first time in their history,


elected a new President, Hans Leendertse C427. He replaced Lieuwe Schol C291 who had decided to stand down after holding the office for the first 25 years of their existence. With all the trials and tribulations of the late seventies and most of the eighties behind them


the Centurions had come into the nineties in a fairly subdued fashion. There had been no major problems and apart from the antics of the new breed of ultra distance walkers, not much to add to their long and illustrious history. The only important event of 1993 would be the first ever 200 km event in Great Britain - or would it? In May a small party of the new breed made their separate ways to St. Oedenrode in Holland, to take on the Dutch in their multi event race. Amongst them were the unstoppable Browns. Sandra easily won the ladies race as expected. Richard won the race in determined style, he had set himself a target of breaking the British best performance of Frank O’Reilly in 1960, and by sticking rigidly to a pre-determined plan and schedule, did so in 16 hours 50 minutes 28 seconds. Whether or not it was a world best time for 100 miles cannot be accurately determined, as many exceptional walkers have set exceptional figures in longer races where 100 mile times were not taken. The 200 km / 24 hour race was held on August 21st-22nd in Battersea Park, London. It was


the first time a 24 hour race had been held in Great Britain other than on the track. A 4 km circuit had been established, starting and finishing at the bandstand for ease of recording as this was essentially a 200 km race. Regrettably for those who decided only to do 100 miles, their race would finish at a lonely caravan more than half a mile away from the main centre of activity. 105 walkers started the race, the second largest number in any British ultra distance race. 58 completed the 24 hours, however the first 3 were not required to be on their feet for the full 24 hours, having already reached 200 km. 25 became new Centurions but only 10 of them continued beyond the 100 mile mark. The first new Centurion and also first at 100 miles and overall winner was Alexsey Radionov, who became only the second Russian walker to join our ranks since George Lind C24 in 1908. His 200 km time of 22 hours 4 minutes 39 seconds was more than 50 minutes better than the runner up, Richard Brown C760. One might have thought that Richard would be the first British walker at 100 miles, but as his target was the full 200 km distance he was beaten to the 100 by just over a minute, by Chris Berwick of Leicester who stopped at the 100 mile mark. The whole event was a tremendous success and thought to be one of the best races ever seen in Great Britain, so much so that there were calls for it to be repeated. The general meeting was held in London in October and was preceded by a video recording


of the Battersea Park race. In his report the secretary confirmed that the assets register had been compiled, but whilst compiling it he discovered that the John Prior salver had gone missing for a second time, it was last produced in 1969. He also informed the members that work had been started on compiling a new style handbook (10th edition) and that any information which could be included would be gratefully received. His final report was on the Centurion badges which had caused so much concern in the early eighties. Although badges up to 999 were held in stock, many were found to be unsatisfactory and consideration should be given to replacing them and increasing the stock. If the 1993 race was an unparalleled success, then the 1994 race was quite the opposite. It


was held on the last weekend of July on the Hungarton course near Leicester. From a small 46


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