We are a friendly and inclusive community Athletics club based in South London/Surrey, catering for all abilities, males and females from 10 year olds (year 5) to Masters.
LES ALLDER
"Based at Sutton Arena, Les Allder was responsible for developing, amongst others, such exciting prospects as Ricky Alexis-Smith, Harry Akines-Aryeetey and Daniel Davis - all members of the home based club Sutton and District AC plus Chanelle Garnett of Herne Hill Harriers. All four, just a fraction of a large training group, have between them in recent years amassed UK, AAA and English Schools titles to numerous to mention, including Louise Brunning who was one of Britain's foremost 400m hurdlers.
Les became involved with Mitcham Athletics Club some 30 years ago and one of his earliest roles was team manager for the women who at the time went on to become arguably the finest team in the country.
At the end of March 2004 some of Britain's brightest young talents were mourning the death of their coach Les Allder who at the age of 78 succumbed to cancer of the lymph system., many of whom have continued to credit his leadership for their sporting achievements and ensured that his legacy lives on.
A well respected friend to many of our lifelong members whom, in his honour, our Clubroom was named."
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Sutton and District Athletics Club was formed in 1985 when two local clubs amalgamated.
The former Sutton and Cheam Harriers, who were based at Sutton United's ground (Gander Green Lane) and Mitcham AC, who were based at the Carshalton Sports Arena from 1960 (prior to this they had been at the News of the World track in the grounds of the Canons Leisure Centre in Mitcham), merged to take the name of Sutton and District Athletics Club.
The club was named Sutton and District Athletics Club for a number of reasons. Firstly, there was already a Sutton athletics club in St Helens in the north of England. The other being that Mitcham was outside the London Borough of Sutton and so District was added to Sutton to form Sutton and District Athletics Club as it is now known.
Supporters of the club formed a fund raising appeal in order to rebuild the arena back to its former glory. The track now has wonderful facilities and after years of endless meetings and failed starts the club finally celebrated the centre's opening in February 2003 with Colin Jackson, John Vernon, Paul Ellis and Brian Hewson. The funding was helped by the London marathon trust, Sport England, and Sutton Council and was also lottery funded.
The arena played a part in the 2012 Olympics with it being an official training camp. This status may have been boosted by the fact Sutton Arena is the only upstairs indoor 60m track in all of Europe.
Following the 2012 Olympic Games Sutton Arena was renamed The David Weir Leisure Centre.
In 2012 Sutton & District AC were awarded the Clubmark certification. The club was awarded Clubmark for the second time in November 2015.