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MASTERS ATHLETICS SUMMER 2013.
inaugural EAMA Indoor Inter Area Challenge at Lee
Valley in April. Six regional clubs took part in very
competitive events and Southern Counties Veterans
won all three trophies, men’s women’s and overall,
presented, appropriately, by Jean Mullane, widow of
Danny, a long standing and hardworking EAMA
stalwart. It has been decided to continue this fixture in
future years.
May was a key month for non-stadia athletes, with the
BMAF road relays held again at the popular Sutton
Park venue and the European Veterans Non-Stadia
Championships in Upice, Czech Republic. In the
Czech Republic a small team of fewer than 30 athletes
secured a large haul of 16 individual medals, including
7 gold, and 7 team medals, 4 gold, and M65 Ian
Richards broke the world record for 30k.
A long track and field season now faces athletes, with
four BMAF championships, Pentathlon, Throws
Pentathlon, Decathlon/Heptathlon and the Track and
Field championships, and the EAMA outdoor track and
field challenge, culminating in the World Masters
Championships in Porto Alegre in Brazil in October.
The main international fixtures for 2014 and 2015 have
been settled, but at present there are no plans for a
European Non-Stadia Championships. This is one of
the most important fixtures for road runners and race
walkers, which should continue. On to 2016 the plans
for Glasgow to host the European Veterans Indoor
Championships will, we hope, soon be confirmed.
As I write summer appears to have come. Let’s hope it
continues through the track season.
OBITUARY
Jack Fitzgerald
11 January 1923 – 13 May 2013
By Bridget Cushen
Jack was a truly remarkable man. Born in Pimlico,
London to Anglo-Irish parents, he went straight
into the RAF at a young age at the start of the
War. His B24 Liberator covered the Mediterranean and
the North Africa area; he was to survive some near
misses and a harrowing crash landing when the crew
had to run for their life in fear that the plane would
explode. It was whilst in the RAF that he took an
interest in running. Demobbed, his family had been
bombed out and resettled in Peckham where their GP
was the international shot putter, Harold Moody, who
influenced him to continue running. Jack joined
Mitcham AC and remained a member for over 60
years.
Jack epitomised the “Also Ran” but true club athlete –
hardworking, dedicated with total loyalty. He ran a leg
for his club in the famous London to Brighton road
relays and was a winning team member in several
events. He loved the camaraderie, the long Sunday
morning run through the leafy Surrey lanes, the beer
5
and socialising afterwards. He ran to and from work as
a Warehouse Manager in Croydon and Reigate and
completed a 3-4 hour run at weekend, but despite his
high mileage he only ever won one Senior individual
title - the Surrey County 20 mile - joking that with his
“crab-like” running what more could he expect!
Jack
running in
the London
to Brighton
race.
But it is for his contribution to veteran athletics that he
will be fondly remembered. I use the word “Veteran” as
he was an outspoken opponent of switching to
“Masters”. With John Hayward and Woodford Green
AC he organised one of the first major International
Veterans’ only meeting at Crystal Palace in 1972
wherein a large group of American, Canadian,
Australian and NZ Veterans competed, en route to
watch the Munich Olympics. It proved a huge success
with all the World’s top veterans competing. Jack then
took a large group of British Veterans to an ensuing
World Veterans Track & Field gathering in Toronto in
1975. He booked the flights, hotels, handled all the
entries and managed to arrange a stop-off track
meeting in the USA. Without the benefit of IT he
obviously spent hours planning and putting a
memorable trip together, Jack always stuck at a task
until completion. In Toronto the athletes got together
at an Open Forum and set up the veterans’ equivalent
of the IAAF. Jack was asked to Chair a Steering
Committee as International Veterans Road Races
were scheduled for Coventry in 1976. The veterans
clubs in Britain therefore had to form a Governing
Body as there was then little interest from the main
Athletic body. Jack was one of the South of England
delegates to a meeting set up to form the British
Veterans Athletic Federation, now Masters; he was
elected a Committee member going on to fill various
roles for years, including Honorary Secretary for two
years, he only eased off when he had to care for his
wife, who sadly predeceased him.
Jack wrote extensively about our sport; volunteered at
numerous Leagues etc. was Chairman of the SCVAC
and Sutton & District AC (formerly Mitcham AC) until
quite recently and remained actively involved until well