JOCK Waddington made Parish Walk history tonight when he became the first man to win the event four times in succession.
He led the race from start to finish in a fast time to re-write the record books, beating a hard-chasing Vinny Lynch followed by Richard Gerrard in third.
Determined from the moment Roger Black of sponsors Scottish Widows fired the start gun at the NSC at 8am, Waddington set off at a furious pace and left his opposition trailing.
He was inside race record speed for a long time, but the heat of the afternoon on the north west coast took its toll and by the finish Waddington couldn’t match the fastest ever time, set by Sean Hands at 14 hours 47 minutes 36 seconds.
However, there was some consolation as Jock’s time of 15 hours 1 minute 48 seconds was the second fastest of all time. Vinny Lynch also managed to beat the time of Robbie Callister to become the third fastest in history in 15-15-44.
Richard Gerrard’s time of 15-23-21 was only just under three minutes slower than the great Derek Harrison’s best - making the 2011 Scottish Widows Parish Walk one of the fastest ever.
Near perfect conditions greeted the record number of starters, but it became humid and very warm in the afternoon sunshine and the hundreds of walkers who passed through Peel were finding it tough going late in the afternoon and early evening.
Another record number of 1,099 walkers made it to Peel where the atmosphere was fantastic, much of which was down to Dot Tilbury who entertained the huge crowds for hours over the public address system.
In fact, there was a record number of walkers at every church along the route up to midnight.
“It has been another fantastic day, with a wonderful atmosphere everywhere and an absolutely brilliant occasion yet again,” said Scottish Widows managing director Dean Waddingham.
All photos by Bill Dale
See also: "Parish Walk - 3rd highest number of finishers"
"Parish Walk starts - first photographs"
"Parish Walk - Top 20 finishers"
"Parish Walk - 21st - 50th positions"
