A bumper report to bring you today, as 60 metres finals were run in all age groups, and the pentathlons got off to a flying start, as well as plenty of action out on the road.
At the end of the championships’ fourth day, the team from Great Britain and Northern Ireland finds itself fourth in the medal table, with 65 medals in total, including 21 golds.
60m – Women
In the first flat race of the day, having been preceded by some pentathletes, Dorothy Fraser took a W85 silver in 13.89, getting the British team off to an impeccable (if early) start.
The Lincoln Wellington athlete’s time was a vast improvement on her 14.65 British record set in winning the British Masters Indoor Championships earlier this year.
The next race saw Iris Holder almost add further silverware, as 12.02 saw her finish fourth, just three-hundredths from a medal.
With three athletes in the W70 final, it was Anne Nelson who found herself on the podium, 10.19 securing bronze, with Caroline Marler (10.43, 5th) and Jean Fail (11.07, 8th) not far behind.
The first British gold of the day was delivered by Jane Horder, however, as she romped to a 9.16 victory in the W65s, leading home Caroline Powell (9.43, 4th) and Joan Trimble, who unfortunately pulled up injured.
An age group down, yesterday’s W60 long jump gold medal winner Melanie Garland had qualified fifth-fastest, and it was there she finished, clocking 9.35.
The next two races saw a relative medal drought for the Brits, with Juliet Sidney eighth in the W55s in 8.90, before W50s Michelle Thomas (8.52) and Fiona Davidson (8.65) finished fourth and sixth respectively, Thomas just one-hundredth from the podium.
However, the W45 pairing of Yvette Henry and Karen Burles returned British colours to the top of the standings once again, Henry racing to an 8.03 British record for the win, and Burles’ 8.09 bring home the bronze.
An athlete in peak form, the remarkably consistent Lisa Boland recorded 7.83 in the W40 final to place second by just two-hundredths, after a British record-breaking 7.82 in yesterday’s heats.
The final women’s 60 metres of the day saw massive British representation, four lanes of eight handed over to those in red, white, and blue. Whilst medals eluded the quartet of Stacey Downie (7.97, 4th), Shereen Charles (7.97, 5th), Joanne Ryan (8.22, 6th), and Michelle Watson (8.25, 7th), Ryan and Downie get to do it all again in the heats of the 200 metres tomorrow.
60m – Men
Allan Long improved his British M80 record by two-hundredths in his final, recording 9.36 to take gold by a comfortable margin. Also on the podium was the irrepressible Anthony Treacher, matching his heat time of 10.03 to score a bronze.
In the M70s, Simon Barrett also got his hands on a bronze medal, his 8.54 clocking a season’s best by some margin.
Pat Logan ran his fastest time as an M60 when it mattered, 7.90 to secure a bronze, with Joe Appiah seventh in the M50s in a time of 7.57.
A trio of talents took on the conclusion of the M45 event, Dominic Bradley leading them home in 7.12 for bronze, with Joshua Wood (7.49, 8th) and Mensah Elliott (7.18, 4th) outside of the medals.
The final British duo on show in the centre of the track were Seriashe Childs, finishing eighth in the M40 final in 7.58, and Duayne Bovell in the M35s, 7.07 giving him fourth place.
800m Semi-Finals
Tomorrow’s 800 metre finals will have significant British representation after some incredibly successful semi-finals today.
Fresh from yesterday’s record-breaking escapades, Virginia Mitchell led four British ladies into the W60 final. Mitchell’s 2:53.54 made her fastest qualifier, with Elke Hausler (2:56.34q, 3rd), Sharyn Ramage (2:57.08q, 4th), and Christine Anthony (2:57.71Q, 7th) close behind.
Anna Critchlow’s 2:33.56 made her a non-automatic qualifier for the W55 final, with Zoe Doyle leading the W40 qualifiers in 2:28.36.
The final female pair to make it through were W35 pairing Emily Bonnett (2:22.94Q) and Laura Haggarty (2:25.41q), fourth- and eighth-fastest respectively.
In the men’s early rounds, Paul Forbes won the opening M65 heat in 2:29.38, while Peter Mountain cruised to automatic qualification in the third heat in a time of 2:34.96.
The M60 trio of Jed Turner (2:22.23q), Sean Price (2:22.87q), and David Clarke (2:26.49Q) made it through to their final, while Adrian Haines (2:11.27q) and Rob McHarg (2:11.81q) were the M55s to progress.
Steven Baldock was sole M50 qualifier, clocking 2:08.05 to progress from the fourth heat, while David Locker qualified for the M45 final by the thinnest of margins, winning heat three in 2:05.53, one-hundredth ahead of second place.
Final British athlete into Thursday’s finals was Keith Hutchinson, the M40 athlete qualifying second-fastest by virtue of a 2:00.72 result in heat three.
10K Road Race
In a combined men’s and women’s 10K race out on the roads, 26 British athletes started among a field of 257. Richard Waldron was first man home, finishing as sixth M35 in 32:46, just over half a minute from a medal.
David Heslop and Alastair Walker were the next Brits across the line, Heslop finishing in 34:13 to place seventh M40. Walker’s 34:18, however saw him top the M65 category by over two and a half minutes, and break the WMA championship record for the distance.
Sadly, despite reporting elsewhere, 10K on the road is not a distance at which World Masters ratifies records (only the marathon and various race walking distances), the performance is not a world record, though it very well might be the fastest 10K ever by an M65 athlete.
Jose Antonio Gonzalez Armas (35:08, 8th M50) and Chris Upson (36:56, 7th M55) rounded out the fastest British men, with Susan McDonald the next athlete home.
McDonald’s 38:53 saw her win a gold in the W55 category, followed a minute later by Clare Elms’ 39:55 for silver.
Between the pairing was Brian Green, a 39:28 seeing him in as 6th M65, Madeleine Armstrong Plieth occupying the same position in the W40 category with a 41:38 clocking.
A tightly packed bunch of Brits came in around the 42 to 43 minutes, with Valerie Woodland leading the way in 42:34 as fourth W50 (and do check out Valerie’s story), just dipping 5th placed M70 Ronald Cattle (42:35).
Jacob Armstrong Plieth (43:03, 14th M45), Milica Mladenovic (43:23, 8th W35), and Sian Finlay (45:28, 7th W50) came home before the next British medal, duly delivered by M75 Norman Baillie with an age group-topping 46:02.
Next up were a trio of Alans. Alan Newman’s 47:18 for tenth M65 continued a strong showing in that age category, before Alan Roberts (49:31, 21st M55) and Alan Appleby crossed the line. Appleby’s 49:37 placed him onto the M75 podium alongside Baillie, in the bronze medal position.
A result of 50:06 saw Geoff Newton follow shortly after, for fifth M75, before Jane Georghiou (51:34, 5th W70), Philip Brennan, Rosalind Tabor (53:53, 6th W70), and Andrew Murray (54:28, 15th M70) finished their 10K efforts.
Brennan raced home in 52:25, the M80 athlete earning himself a silver medal in the process, before three strong showings just outside the hour mark rounded off the British involvement, Wendy Doxey (61:18, 8th W60), Kevin Dillon (61:44, 15th M65), and Robert Sargent (62:32, 17th M65) crossing the finish line.
Pentathlon
Today was the first day on which the multi-eventers got a chance to shine, and there were four athletes in action across two categories.
In the M60s, Ian Crawley and Pete Stepney pulled on British colours for five events, opening up with the 60 metre hurdles. 10.45 for Crawley scored over 700 points, with Stepney finishing in 11.85 in his heat.
Three jumps within four centimetres of each other saw Crawley ranked sixth overall in the long jump, 4.75 his best, Stepney’s two valid attempts separated by just three (8.71 improved to 8.74 in the final round).
It was the shot put where Crawley had his best field event showing of the day. 11.75 in the opening round was the third-best overall, and Stepney scored a season’s best of 6.65 from his three throws.
Tonbridge athlete Crawley cleared 1.51 in the high jump on a card which included five failures before his final clearance, ranking sixth, while Abingdon’s Stepney saw a clean card up to 1.27 before three failures ended his jumping.
Stepney rounded off his competition in the first heat of the 1000 metres, 3:42.91 giving him 635 points for a total of 2438, placing 18th.
A five-lap time of 3:20.12 saw Crawley finish some 20 seconds ahead of the other athletes in his heat, as well as achieving the remarkable feat of scoring increasing numbers of points in each event as the day went on, taking home a bronze medal with the bumper total (and new British record) of 3781.
That British record previously belonged to one Brian Slaughter, competing in the M65 category alongside Clement Leon. Chasing his own British record of 3692, set during the British Pentathlon Championships less than three weeks ago, Slaughter clocked 10.40 for over 800 points, ahead of Leon’s 12.63.
In a mind-blowingly large single long jump pool of 25 athletes, Slaughter went out to the nice round figure of 4.50 in the final round, whilst Leon found his best of 4.05 in the first.
That pattern repeated in the shot — a third round put of 11.02 for Slaughter accompanied by an opening effort of 7.60 for Leon, both men over 1500 points ahead of the high jump.
Leon outscored Slaughter in the vertical contest, 1.36 to 1.33, though disappointingly the full card is currently unavailable online.
In the antepenultimate race of the day, Eastbourne’s Slaughter and Blackheath and Bromley’s Leon both raced to impressive times, 3:40.20 and 4:06.06 respectively, to place themselves comfortably in the top 10.
Leon totalled 2734 for ninth place overall, while Slaughter’s events totted up to 3686, an agonising six points short of his own British record, and just one place from the podium in fourth.
Triple Jump
There may have only been Brits in one of the three triple jump competitions on the day, but a trio of athletes put out strong performances in a hotly contested final.
Leading the way was Nia Rutter, a multiple medal winner at this year’s British Indoor Championships, whose third round 11.06 saw her win by over half a metre. The contest for the other medals was much tighter, and Deborah Dasse (10.35) and Dash Newington (10.20) were just inches away from the 10.41 effort of the third-placed German.
Pole Vault
Grant Stirling was the sole competitor for Great Britain and Northern Ireland as the pole vault kicked off with the younger men’s age groups, but an equal personal best of 3.00 saw him place tenth in a packed M45 contest.
Weight Throw
Roughly eight seconds after Jane Horder claimed her gold in the W65 60 metres, Britain claimed their second gold of the day.
James Taylor, sole Brit in the weight throw on this day of the championships, blew the M40 field away.
Whilst all four of his valid attempts from the opening five rounds would have won the competition by over 70 centimetres, it was in the final round that the Sheffield and Dearne athlete unleashed a work of throwing brilliance, sending the 15.88 kilogramme implement out to 17.45, over a metre further than his previous best.
The result will relieve Steven Whyte of his British M40 record in the event — Whyte’s distance of 17.32 had stood since 2005.
Discus Throw
In this middle day of the championships, four Brits were on show as the men got a chance to tackle the discus throw for the first time.
Paul Derrien was first up, placing seventh M50 after three throws over 42 metres in the final three rounds, 42.93 his best.
Leeroy Golding delivered his best throw as an M55, 31.76 with the 1.5 kilogramme implement placing him 13th.
Guy Dirkin, after placing just outside the medals in yesterday’s hammer throw, had no such issues in today’s M70 discus. Taking the lead in the first round with 42.77, the Northern Master never relinquished it, taking gold just 15 centimetres ahead of the second-placed Czech athlete.
The final athlete to compete in the circle for the British team was James Sloan. In a competitive M80 field, Dirkin’s Northern Masters clubmate also delivered his best throw in the opening round, a distance of 21.72.
Tomorrow sees more of the same, as the pentathlons continue apace, and we have the benefit of a continued bumper crop of field events alongside the 800 metre finals.
I would recommend revisiting yesterday’s report as well, thanks to the addition of some great photos from Caroline Marler.
As always, if you are in Torun and have photos of British athletes that you’re happy to share, feel free to send them in to jdavis@bmaf.org.uk.