Darrell Stone, the man who was to become the greatest Sussex race walker of modern athletics, was born on the second of February 1968 in Hove before moving to Steyning at the age of 5. He started off taking part in almost all sports including football for Steyning Strikers (the youth team back then), captaining his school, Lancing College, for athletics (800m &1500m), cross country, and boxing from ages 7 to 13. Darrell began race walking from the age of 9, having been shown how to get the technique right by Johnnie Henderson, who had been a great ultra-walker, having won the London to Brighton and back race!
Using Johnnie's famous words of, 'style first and the speed will come', the pace did come, and by the age of 11, Darrell joined the powerhouse of Steyning Athletic Club.
Picking up a bronze medal in his first National RWA Championships Under 13s in October 1980 behind 2 of Steyning club mates, Gareth Brown and Grant Ringshaw, he was surrounded by other local talents. Moving through the age groups, he only picked up top six places at best in Nationals and English Schools. Frustrated by this, at the age of 16, he decided to take the sport seriously and ditch all other sporting interests other than running and walking. Alf Palmer made the final decision which led Darrell to focus entirely on walking. As a long time walker and Darrell's physiotherapist, Alf advised that Darrell would have a 'long and a great career as a walker but a short and injured one as a runner!'
With this new focus, and to many people's surprise, he won his first Under 20 Nationals in 1985 at the age of 17. He made the International Great Britain team for his first junior vest in May that year competing in Pisa, Italy, placing 6th. After that, he had a taste for the travel and overseas competition.
In 1985, he also won his first Senior Sussex title taking the 10,000m crown from club mate Dave Rowlands in 45:23s. Rowlands was the number one Sussex walker at the time and was also his coach. Over the years he won several County titles and was only beaten once in his career by another Sussex walker, and that was not until 1995. In reality, though his eyes were more on National and International competitions.
He won several junior vests with a 19th place at the inaugural World Junior Champs in Athens 1986 and the following year, he just missed out on a medal finishing 4th at the European Junior Championships in Birmingham in a UK Junior Record of 41.52 for 10km track walk which stood until recently. With a road best of 41.46 soon after in an International win in France,
1988 saw Darrell join the Senior ranks, racing at 20km - a major step up. In February 1988, the 20km debut saw Darrell cross the line 3rd in Douglas, Isle of Man in 83.52 which was an automatic Olympic place for Los Angeles. Unfortunately, and a tough part of the sport, Darrell was disqualified 5 minutes after the race, this invalidated his automatic Olympic place, but Darrell had made his mark. Straight into the International team, he debuted as a senior in Barcelona in May finishing as the first Briton home.
1989 saw improvements and a British Mile Record of 5.59.1 at the Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth, becoming the first Briton to break six minutes for a mile. With a 5km track personal best of 19.35 set at Withdean Stadium, Brighton, one balmy evening, Darrell's times were starting to come down to where they needed to be to compete at top senior level.
Adapting to 20km was always challenging, and a disqualification in the European trials in 1990 made Darrell move up to 50km, debuting in Plymouth. Walking 4.10.23 at the first attempt and making the European Championships 50km in Split that summer. An incredibly difficult course and heat prevented Darrell finishing, but it was part of his learning curve.
In 1993 he took the UK 10k title and made the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, finishing 30th having qualified with what was to be a lifetime best of 83.27 for 20km in Livorno, Italy. This was followed up in 1994 (just missing a medal) with 4th in the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada.
It was at Enfield in 1995 that Darrell and fellow Steyning walker, Gareth Brown, battled right to the tape in the National/R.W.A. 35km championships in what appeared a dead heat in 2:41:36. However, the judges gave Brown the Gold medal. This is believed to be the only time that a Sussex walker beat Darrell until his retirement. He had won that title in 1989 at Colchester and was to win again 10 years later at Stockport.
1995 saw great progress as it saw Darrell finish 29th in the World Cup in Beijing as the first Briton home and as the only 20km walker selected for the World Championships in 1989 in Gothenberg, finishing 25th in a Swedish heatwave! That year also saw one of Darrell best performances at the AAA 10km walk at Birmingham. Having won in 1994, Darrell hit the bell with two other walkers in close contention, Darrell outstripped them, took the AAA title and set the 2nd fastest ever AAA 10k walk time of 41.10.11.
With 1996 being Olympic year in Atlanta, the focus was on qualification in the top 10 which he knew was possible. With a solid 83.58 early in the season, all was looking positive, however, with five races under the qualifying standard, a win at the Olympic trial (by five minutes) and a solid 10th place in a major International in Moscow, no place was awarded. The Olympics was going to be the enigma of his career.
With a quiet year in 1997 following the disappointment, in 1998 Darrell was in great form finishing a very close 4th at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 86.37 in incredible 40-degree heat. This was probably Darrell's best performance and was greeted by two letters when home. One was a congratulatory note from the Race Walking Association for an outstanding achievement in the most difficult conditions imaginable and another from the British Athletics Foundation removing him from their 'elite programme' due to a lack of performances.
In 2000 Darrell took the National 50km at Victoria Park in 4:21:23
Losing his father to cancer a month later, Darrell took a back seat to race walking from this point onwards, focusing on his career. Having joined Legal & General in 1985, he had been climbing the corporate ladder in the background working full time throughout the above sporting career. It was time to switch focus as Darrell had been the top salesman in L&G in 1998 which led on to top Sales Director in 2002.
Meeting his wife to be, Zoe Stone in 2000, they married in August 2002 and had four boys, Alec (17), Callum (15), Kai (10) and Aiden (9). Never one for a quiet life, they moved to the Middle East, based in Bahrain to take up a role running Distribution for L&G in 2011, with Aiden just eight weeks old. Returning to the UK in 2014 with several running trophies from Bahrain, Darrell became a founder of a Wealth Management firm, Continuum, which is now in the top 100 Wealth Managers in the UK.
2008 saw his final National win with the 10-mile title at Picketts Lock in 73:41.
Darrell no longer walks. In fact, he hasn't race-walked since he completed his last international in 2010 in Bedford when he came back to try and make his third Commonwealth having come so close to medalling in the 1994 and 1998 ones. Missing out on qualification by about 30 seconds over 20kms at the age of 42, Darrell hung up his walking shoes.
With the walking retired, Darrell did switch to running to come off the heavy training workload. Only racing occasionally after years of walking races his most notable was placing 53rd at the Great South Run 10 miles in October 2010.
Nowadays, as a qualified football coach, Darrell can be seen on Saturday morning running the Billingshurst Under 10s team having settled back in the village after the Middle East stint. With road cycling and running as keen interests now to keep fit, when asked if he wants to pick up Masters events, Darrell says that 'he has too many miles on the clock now', misses the adrenaline of the old race days but still gets excited before every football match with his young team as they are the future!
Darrell clocked 5.59.1 for One Mile which was a British record at the time, 19.35 for 5km track, 40.45 for 10km road, 66.40 for 10-mile road, 83.27 for 20km road, 2.40.49 for 35kmm road and 4.10.23 for 50km road and still holds three Sussex records and is second in two other distances.
Darrell must surely be considered the best Sussex race walker, at least since 1908 double Olympic gold medal by George Larner, but things are now very different.