Masters runners aged from 35-85 lined up with the Elite Men and Women as part of the Birmingham 10k organised by the Great Run Company for an international challenge setup by England Athletics as part of their development of masters road running. There was comprehensive TV coverage by Channel 5 and you can still watch it using the link here or via the app My5 on tablets.
England Athletics intended to select their team by qualifying races are Chichester, Trafford and Lincoln but the latter two got cancelled and so they made up their full team based on recent best performances from those registered for Trafford and Lincoln. The Celtic team was only assembled in the weeks preceding the race, on the basis of runners from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Ireland who put themselves forward with comparable times to those of the England team.
The Celtic men’s team was almost the same size as the England men’s team, whilst the Celtic women’s team was much smaller. In order to balance this out, the team scores were calculated by adding up positions in each age group, with the scoring positions for each team limited to the number of runners in the smaller team for that age group. England won the overall match fairly conclusively 124 to 237 points, despite some good individual battles within the age groups.
The individual age group winners were as follows:
| Age Group | Name | Age Group | Name |
| M35 | Michael Cayton (ENG) | F35 | Jill Collett (ENG) |
| M40 | Martin Williams (CELTIC) | F40 | Kirsty Longley (ENG) |
| M45 | James Skinner (ENG) | F55 | Michelle Clarke (ENG) |
| N50 | Andrew Leach (ENG) | F50 | Maria Heslop (ENG) |
| M55 | Stephen Watmough (ENG) | F55 | Sue Phillips (ENG) |
| M60 | Paul Mingay (ENG) | F60 | Isobel Burnett (CELTIC) |
| M65 | Paul Whelpton (ENG) | F65 | Marion Hemsworth (ENG) |
| M70 | Peter Young (ENG) | F70 | Susan Garner (ENG) |
| M75 | Tony Brackstone (ENG) | F75 | Patricia Cummins (ENG) |
| M80 | John Smithurst (ENG) | ||
| M85 | Richard Pitcairn-Knowles (ENG) |
The top 5 male and 5 female age graded performances of the day, based on their gun times were as follows:
| Name | Age-Grading | Name | Age Grading |
| 1. Maria Heslop (ENG-F50) | 93.9% | 6. David Millar (CELTIC-M45) | 88.5% |
| 2. Gail Griffiths (CELTIC-F50) | 92.7% | 7. Austin Sloane (ENG-M60) | 88.5% |
| 3. Andrew Leach (ENG-M50) | 92.5% | 8. Stephen Watmough (ENG-M55) | 88.3% |
| 4. Kathy Bailey (ENG-F50) | 89.7% | 9. Guy Woods (ENG-M55) | 88.1% |
| 5. Pauline Rich (ENG-F70) | 88.7% | 10. Isobel Burnett (CELTIC-F60) | 87.6% |
There is a full report on the day’s events on the England Athletics news item here and the full results are listed here
For more information on the England initiatives to support masters road running and the representative opportunity in a Masters International Marathon in October use this link to their webpage.
Peter Kennedy
BMAF IT Manager