Adrian crowned World Champion, Big Half and SEAA/Masters medals

This week report sees Adrian Essex crowned V70 multi-event world champion and world record holder, Suraya Frost win Silver at the South of England Track and Field Championships, more medals at the British Masters, some great runs at the Vitality Big Half and solid performances at the LICC meeting including a new Club Hammer Record.

Southern U13, U15 and U17 Track and Field Championships

The weekend saw the last major Junior Track and Field Championship at a wet and windy Kingsmeadow Stadium in Kingston and the last chance for many Juniors to record performances before moving up age group. 4 Heathsiders took part with Suraya Frost winning the silver medal in the 70mH missing out on gold by just 0.03s. This has been a fine season for Suraya who is ranked 4th nationally in the 70mH and we look forward to seeing her as an U15G next season.

In the Long Jump Milli Bridgman Athanasatos finished 5th with Suraya one place behind in 6th. In the 800m Mia Rosen negotiated the heats finishing 2nd and finished 6th in the final. As this is her first year as an U15 Mia gets the chance to go again next year.

In the boys competiton David Baah Okyere just missed out on the U15 Boys 800m final with Thomas Wassermann successfully negotiating the heats to make the 80m Hurdles final where unfortunately he hit a hurdle to finish 8th. Nana Oduro-Nyaning was unfortunately disqualified from the U17 men 400m final.

South of England U13,U15 and U17 Championships, Kingston, 21-22.8.21

U13 Girls

70mH

Final 2nd Suraya Frost 11.80s 🥈

Long Jump

5th Milli Bridgman Athanasatos 4.23m

6th Suraya Frost 4.15m

U15 Girls

800m

H1 2nd Mia Rosen 2.27.85

Final 6th Mia Rosen 2:24.98

U15 Men

800m

H3 David Baah-Okyere 2:11.14

80mH

H1 4th Thomas Wassermann 12.56

Final 8th Thomas Wassermann 13.33

U17 Men

400m

DQ Nana Oduro-Nyaning

29th Icosathlon World Championships

Adrian Essex headed to France to take part in the Veterans 29th ultra multievents championships a multi-event World Championships over the weekend. The trip was well worth the effort as he won the M70 category. He completed an amazing twenty events in two days.

He has kindly sent the following report: “Last weekend I took part in 5 events at Heathside’s SAL match as a sort of fitness test for an event on the weekend of 21st and 22nd August. I took the view that I was fit enough.

The division of Masters’ (Vets/Old Folk) championships into 5 year chunks is a wonderful thing. Every 5 years I get a chance to be the new boy again, in a different cohort of competitors, and to escape for a while from the youngsters coming along behind. It almost makes growing old worthwhile. If I were to do well in any championships, my first year as a 70 year old was probably the time to do it. And there was a world championship to contest.

So despite “amber plus” travel traffic lights, and the battery of overpriced tests, I made the bookings and kept my fingers crossed. Taking part in the world championships was the one athletics thing I felt I must do in 2021

Which is how I came to be in Epinal in the East of France to take part in the 29th Icosathlon World Championships on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the International Association of Ultra Multi-Events (IAUM).

The IAUM was founded by a group of Finns who felt that a decathlon was not testing enough and so they created the Icosathlon. The twenty events are essentially the entire programme for a league meeting, but with both the 3000 and 5000 metres included, and the addition of a 200 metre hurdles race. Oh, yes, and to finish off at the end of the second day, a 10,000 metres race. So that’s 4 jumps (long, high, triple and pole vault) , 4 throws (discus, hammer, javelin and shot) and 12 running races (100, 200, 400 , 800, 1500, 3000, 5000, 10000 metres flat, 3000 metres steeplechase, and three hurdles races over 100, 200 and 400 metres).

Sadly there were no Finns competing in Epinal, though I have not established why. Only one other Brit maintained his entry and actually turned up, while several dropped out, for which I blame amber plus and the fear of 10 days isolation.

There were four groups of competitors in this festival of multi-events. Icosathlon Group 1 was older men and younger women, Groups 2 and 3 senior men and Tetradecathlon group 4 was a mixed group. Therefore I was in Group 1 with men in their 40s, 50s and 70s and four women in their 20s. I am growing to like this intermingling of the sexes in events. The opportunity is now happening increasingly often for me, for instance in races with barriers. The 300 metres hurdles is the same specification for my M70+ group and for the women’s M60+ and I’ve had a couple of good mixed races this season. The women’s steeplechase is run over lower barriers than the men’s, as it is for my age group, so I can take part as a non-scorer in league matches in the women’s race. All useful preparation for a double decathlon.

Finally, then to the event. Any multi-event is a series of trials. Winning an event is not enough, one must put in a good performance in order to gain a good total of points. And one must do well in the things one can do well in. For example, a t my age a 20s 100 metres is worth 126 points, while at 19 seconds one gains 209 points, so a one second improvement earns an extra 83 points. But a 15 second run will earn 679 points, 14 seconds 841, a gain of 162 points for one second. So, in any event, an improvement from abysmal to poor will bring relatively little advantage, but the same numerical improvement from very good to really very good indeed will bring much more. This knowledge helps to inform both a strategy for the competition and for the training preceding it.

Which brings me to the point where I massage both my own ego and the Achilles tendon on my right foot (It’s been niggling for weeks). I won the M70 category in the Icosathlon, with a good points total, so for perhaps 2 years, until one of the M65 youngsters matures sufficiently to join my age group, I will be able to claim to be a World Champion and the World Record Holder. The results are tabulated above.

BMAF British Masters Championships

3 of the Club Veteran athletes headed to Derby to take part in the British Masters Championships with Tony Killilea 2nd in the 3000m Steeplechase and Asha Osei both 3rd in their 100m age category. Asha's 100m time of 11.70s ranks him 13th V35 nationally. Well done Guys!

BMAF British Masters Championships, Derby 21-22.8.21

100m

M35 3rd Asha Osei 11.70s 🥉PB Ranked 13th V35 Nationally

M60 15th Adrian Day 14.47s

200m

M35 4th Asha Osei 23.81s

M60 12th Adrian Day 28.74s

400m

M60 7th Adrian Day 65.86s

3000mSC

M55 2nd Tony Killilea 12:45.17 🥈

LICC Open Meeting

Zac's training group were well represented at the LICC Open at the StoneX on Saturday. Several PB's achieved and James Hamblin recorded a season best in the Hammer which increases his Club record by 24cm to 57.65m.

LICC Open Meeting, StoneX, 21.8.21

800m

X2 1st Benjy Bediako (U15B) 2:20.87

X3 1st Artie Feeny Willings (U15B) 2:37.40 PB

High Jump

3rd Artie Feeny Willings (U15B) 1.45m

Discus

4th Helene Kehoe (VW55) 16.02m

Hammer (7.26kg)

3rd James Hamblin 57.65m New Club Record

Hammer (3Kg)

2nd Helene Kehoe (VW55) 20.24m PB

Javelin

3rd Marcel Baczek (U17M) 29.73m PB by 42cm

Vitality Big-Half Marathon

As we move to autumn the major road races have started to return. Combined with the lifting of Covid restrictions mass starts and crowds are now possible again making the experience . There was a very good representation of Heathsiders at the race as preparations step up for the London Marathon on 3rd October.

Vitality Big Half, Greenwich, 22.8.21

1st J Smith (Unattch) 1:02.06

125th Andy Barnes 1:16.00

151st Conor Brown 1:16.48

218th Andrew McGeery 1:18.43

228th Nick Hodges-Gibson 1:18.52

270th Sion Lewis 1:19.48

345th Joseph Clemoes 1:21.16

392nd Rebecca Bunting 1:21.57 27th Woman

410th Justin Badgin 1:22.22 3rd V55

416th Steve Pennington 1:22.27

470th Damien Lane 1:23.30

472nd Matthew Field 1:23.32

516th Tony Shearer 1:24.08

564th Mathew Certledge 1:24.51

618th David Keir 1:25.36

757th David Johns 1:27.35

1,239th Stephen Todd 1:32.58

1,304th David Jackson 1:34.04

1,933rd Alex Straight 1:39.25

1,959th Glen Browm 1:39.34

2,012nd Trudy Kearney 1:39.55

2,038th Ciera Kennedy 1:40.06

2,232nd Ben Harris 1:41.54

4,305th Daisy Whichurch 1:55.22

5,249th Amy Sullivan 2:01.30

6,808th Ella Rogers 2:13.55

Royal Docks Splash & Dash

Hannah Yip completed the Royal Docks Splash + Dash (750m swim + 5k run) on Tuesday finishing 8th overall and the 2nd Female. The 5k time includes the transition!

Swim 20:02.08

Run 24:47.04

Park Run

The Club had 85 listed runners down as doing Parkruns over the weekend,. First places were recorded by Sefu Jamaal, Beth Hawling, Leo Burningham and Tim Marshall.

Results can be found here

Many thanks to Adrian Essex, Adrian Day and Hannah Yip