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MASTERS ATHLETICS SUMMER 2013.
were just not fast enough and they were only able to move
up to ninth.
They were even faster on leg seven as former4 senior
international Ben Noad scorched round in the day’s second
Martin
Rees
Helps
Les
Croupiers
to third
place.
fastest time of 14:56, but such were the gaps, he could
only advance their cause by two places to seventh.
Well over a kilometre ahead of Highgate, Matt Jones’
excellent solo 15:31 gave Thames a 161 second lead and
moving into second was Les Croupiers, through Martin
Rees. The M60 world record breaker wasn’t needed in their
winning M55 team, and his 15:55 would have been a M55
race record by 20 seconds and was 59 seconds faster than
Fred Gibbs’ official M60 race record, though Hager has
also run significantly faster in younger age group races.
Moving through strongly for third was Preston, for whom
former cycling star Gethin Butler timed 15:28.
Simon Wurr had a lonely final leg and his 15:39 ensured
they broke the relatively soft M35 best with a time of
2:06:56.
Two and three-quarters minutes later Preston’s Robert
Affleck’s 15:23 gave them the silver medals as they
overhauled Les Croupiers.
Salford, Tipton, Highgate and Aldershot completed a good
quality top seven but there wasn’t the depth you used to
get in the old M40 competition and only ten teams finished
within ten minutes of the winners.
M45
LEICESTER have won the only two previous M45 events
and they had no trouble making it three out of three with
what was a race record, and but was also superior to
Oxford’s M50 record from 1999 and was arguably the
performance of the weekend.
They got a cracking start as Gordon Lee bettered his M45
individual race record with a superb 15:03 on leg one. He
was close to the M35 fastest leg Williams and finished
strongly to beat Aldershot’s M35 competitor Elliott
Robinson and no other M45 was to get within half a minute
of his time.
At this stage Andy Wetherill of Redhill (15:40) and Dave
Smith of Wolverhampton (15:52) occupied the other medal
spots.
On the second leg, Rob Sheen’s 16:32 gave them a 78
second lead over Oxford, for whom Julian Richardson’s
15:49 moved them just ahead of Tynebridge and Salford
while Dulwich’s British Masters M50 3000m silver medallist
Tony Tuohy with 16:22 moved them closer to the front.
On leg three Gareth Deacon’s 16:51 maintained Leicester’s
huge lead but former British Masters champion and senior
international Brian Rushworth 15:55 was the quickest on
the leg, including M35s as he brought Sunderland into the
medals.
Gareth
Deacon on leg
C for
Leicester
Dulwich through 2:40 marathoner Charlie Lound moved
into third a single second ahead of Salford.
The fourth leg saw Leicester keep their minute plus lead as
Danny Keating ran 17:03.
Salford through Paul Simons’ 16:43 now occupied second
just ahead of Sunderland.
On leg five, Leicester didn’t just maintain their lead, they
extended it as Tommy Hughes ran 16:35 for the fastest
M45 time on the leg.
Salford through Rob Tudor’s 16:48 moved them further
clear in second. Third place was still in doubt though as
Sunderland, Oxford and Tynebridge were within a minute
of each other.
On the final leg, Chris Southam’s 16:03 extended the
advantage to just under two minutes. Salford’s Phil
Leybourne ran 16:21 and that gave them a minute’s
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