The annual Belgrave Harriers open seven-miles road walk, which is being staged at Wimbledon tomorrow for the 82nd time, may not be held again, writes Tom Pollack.

Over the years, Britain's top race walkers have competed in the Belgrave event and past winners have included Ken Matthews, the 1964 Olympic 20km walk gold medallist, and Paul Nihill, the current Race Walking Association president, who took Olympic silver over 50km at Mexico City in 1968.

Organiser Carl Lawton has warned would-be competitors that this could be the last Belgrave open seven and says there are a combination of reasons.

"The local council has introduced parking controls which make it difficult for competitors using their own transport," he said.

"New rules being applied by UK Athletics mean that from next year I will have to carry out a risk assessment of the course and have properly trained marshalls.

"It's getting so complicated. We used to enjoy putting it on."

In addition, Lawton who has been organiser for almost 30 years says entries have been falling dramatically.

In its hey-day in the 1960's the Belgrave open, like all the other major walks at that time, attracted more than 200 competitors.

"Now the field is down to around 40.

"We always like to give good prizes, but the numbers don't justify them," said Lawton.

"I'll see how many turn out this year. It's coming to a point where with all the difficulties like parking, the new regu-lations from UK Athletics and the poor entry it's just not worth the effort organising."

One alternative that Lawton is considering is switching the event which is the oldest London open road walk alongside those at Enfield and Bexley to a traffic-free course in Battersea Park.

November 23, 2001 17:30