Winchester and District Athletic Club

Aims and Objectives

• To provide a safe, friendly and stimulating environment in which to enjoy a variety of athletic disciplines.
• To provide opportunities to pursue a progressive programme of exercise for improvement of health, fitness and performance.
• To encourage team work, loyalty and commitment to the club through the democratic representation of all its members
• To foster behaviour and attitudes among members that will enhance the reputation of the club.
• To assist members to do as well as they can in meeting their personal goals
• To improve the general standing of the club and help its teams to progress to the highest level of competition for the abilities of its members

Club History

In the summer of 1975 a sponsored run was organised by Winchester Rotary Club to raise money to start an athletic club. Captain Jim Fox, who was the National Modern Pentathlon Champion at the time, was official starter of the fun run to which only 2 people turned up, John Miller and his daughter Lynda! Inspired by Captain Fox’s achievements in the 1976 Olympics (an individual and team gold) John Miller approached Councillor John Broadway (Chairman of Winchester Sports Council) and towards the end of 1976 Winchester and District AC was formed. The first event for WADAC (which at the time had only a handful of members) was a cross country race in Havant in November 1976.

From those humble beginnings the club expanded and by the mid-1980’s membership had reached 100. Notable achievements at that time included a surprise win in the National Indoor Championships in 1984 by the 4X400m relay squad (Sarah Dean, Simone Gandy, Dawn Gandy and Jacqui Parker).

During the 1980's efforts were initiated to construct a running track in Winchester. This campaign ran for 25 years until 2005 when the opportunity arose for WADAC to work in partnership with Winchester City Council and the University of Winchester. The momentum gathered pace over 2 years and together with the impetus of London chosen as host for the 2012 Olympics the dream of a track has finally become a reality. Work is under way and the project at Bar End is timed for completion late spring 2008. See the panoramic photo of the construction work as of October 2007.

WADAC now has almost 500 members made up of competing athletes, recreational runners, coaches and volunteers. The club competes in all disciplines across the whole spectrum of track and field athletics, cross-country and road running. It caters as much for the fun runner or recreational athlete as well as top senior internationals and through its Sportshall and Junior Development seeks to introduce a healthy and active lifestyle to our youngsters of today. These are exciting times for WADAC as we look towards the future, towards continued development of the club and the prospect of some of our athletes competing in London in 2012.

Did You Know?

Simone Gandy became Winchester's first ever U.K. age best record holder when in 1980 as a 14 year old ran 64.2sec. for 400m. hurdles. She then went onto break every age best record up to the age of 18.

19 years latter her record of 58.3sec. at the age of 18 still stands. Simone is ranked 2nd all time over 300m. hurdles with a time of 41.74sec. In 1988 Simone competed for Great Britain in the Seoul Olympics.

Dawn Gandy is ranked 34th in the Junior all time list with a time of 54.22sec. over 400m.

Rankings in the all time 400m. hurdles are, Jacqui Parker 9th, 56.15sec.(1991) Simone Gandy 19th, 57.0sec. (1988) and Sarah Dean 21st. 57.38sec.(1991) were all Winchester athletes before moving onto National League Clubs in their 20's.