New British Best from Angela Copson
There were no really fast times among the younger masters age groups but, further up the age range, there was one new British best from Angela Copson, writes Martin Duff.
The multi-age group record holder Angela Copson won the W75 category in 23:52 gun and 23:47 chip, which topped the listed chip to chip time given to Caroline Lavis at Kingsley, Cheshire earlier this year where her gun time was 24:40.
It is important to note here that in the UK records and indeed best road times are currently based on gun to tape timing methods.
Given that Copson, the world champion had been timed at 23:24 in the BMAF Masters’ road relay at Mallory Park in November, there is clearly more to come from the 75-year-old.
Copson is also the most successful runner in the British & Irish Masters cross-country international with a grand total of 14 victories, starting with hr first W60 win in 2011.
Elsewhere
Elsewhere and still in the over-75 age category, Peter Giles the three-time Masters International cross-country winner posted 21:41 to win his group.
The overall men’s winner was M35 Chris Loudon with a 15:20 clocking, a time well outside his 14:55 ‘under the lights’ at the same venue back in April and only just ahead of second placed Richard McDowell, the first M40 with a 15:22 clocking.
Age Graded
The best age graded performance from the early finishers was Simon Coombes in sixth spot with an M50 time of 15:52. It was his best since 2015 and only 12 seconds down on his lifetime pb set then. A well beaten second M50 here was third ranked Jeff Prest, who still heads Coombes in the rankings, despite losing out here.
Women
The top woman was Sarah Winstone with a 17:05 clocking ahead of Helen Gaunt’s 17:30, which took W40 gold, as sixth placed Nikki Sturzaker, the European 5000m silver medallist was top W50 with 18:03.
Further back Monica Williamson added to her W60 Masters cross-country championship win with a 19:08 clocking for another age group title and third on the 2023 W60 rankings.
Jill Harrison helped Bristol & West to a BMAF W55 road relay win last month and here, her 21:08 improved on her second spot in the W65 rankings.
Thanks to Cliff Hide for the photos which are adapted from his Flickr feed https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB5QkZ
Full results are available on this link British Masters 5k Road Championships – BMAF – British Masters Athletic Federation