{"id":268252,"date":"2025-11-07T06:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268252\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T06:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:57:14","slug":"walking-football-world-champion-says-sport-is-really-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268252\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking football world champion says sport &#8216;is really special&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matty EdwardsWest of England<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762449430_699_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ee3f2930-b959-11f0-a579-0b909f8ee120.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Stuart Langworthy A smiling man in his early sixties with grey hair. He is wearing a hoodie. A building and a play area are in the background.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Stuart Langworthy<\/p>\n<p>Stuart Langworthy first got involved with walking football after a hip operation<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The manager of England men&#8217;s over-60s walking football team says retaining the World Nations Cup is a &#8220;dream&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Stuart Langworthy, from Gloucestershire, led the team to victory during the two-week celebration of inclusive sport in Spain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">England men&#8217;s over-50s also successfully defended their title at the tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Langworthy said: &#8220;Becoming world champion in your sport is a dream for a lot of people, and to do it twice is just crazy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762449430_699_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0dd9d010-ba4a-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Stuart Langworthy The England over-60s team posing for a photo in two rows.  They are wearing blue and white kit. They are posing with the trophy and an England flag.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Stuart Langworthy<\/p>\n<p>The England men&#8217;s over-60s walking team defended their title in Spain<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The 64-year-old said he got involved in walking football more than a decade ago after a hip replacement operation made it impossible to play like he used to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He runs a session for 40 people with physical impairments at Abbeymead Rovers in Gloucester.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I get as much pleasure out of that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Nobody is judged. They are challenged to do what they can.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;When people tell you that walking football has changed their lives, or even saved their lives, you know you&#8217;re doing something really special,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762449430_699_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/855dd230-ba4a-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Stuart Longsworthy A crowd of people, England players and supporters, stand by the side of the pitch, waving England flags.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Stuart Longsworthy<\/p>\n<p>England teams sing the national anthem at the second walking football World Nations Cup<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Walking football is played by about 100,000 people in England.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The first World Nations Cup tournament was held at St George&#8217;s Park in Staffordshire in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">This year&#8217;s competition welcomed men&#8217;s over-70s, women&#8217;s over-40s, over-50s and over-60s, with England winning five of the six age groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">There were also friendly matches for others, including a Parkinson&#8217;s team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matty EdwardsWest of England Stuart Langworthy Stuart Langworthy first got involved with walking football after a hip operation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-268252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}