Adrian wins Silver at World Masters Championships
Adrian has sent a report of his, Adrian, Noelle and Richard’s experience at the World Masters Championships.
World Masters Athletics Championships, Tampere, Summer 2022
“The World Masters Championships in Tampere, Finland has now finished. This is a report of the occasion, a bit about the athletics, a public health announcement and LH camaraderie abroad.. The next paragraph is something like a public service announcement.
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and from time to time the support groups ask those of us affected to make more people aware of the disease. Please be aware of this disease, by means of my anecdote, which I have removed to the foot of the page. Please read the anecdote if you occasionally have painful or swollen joints. It may be relevant and helpful.
Obviously, having not sought a remedy for my particular form of arthritis sooner has left me hopelessly under prepared for a World Championships, but some rounds of competition in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 300m hurdles have sharpened me up somewhat. After the 200 metre semi final (I didn’t qualify) I was genuinely tired, as though I had trained properly. Maybe after a rest day I will have recovered enough for some exertions.
I was very pleased to get through a heat and the semi to the final of the 100m. The winner beat the world record time, but was wind assisted.
I got to the semis of the 200m and 400m missing out on a final place by 1/5th of a second in each case.
I ran a dreadful 300m hurdles race. Hit the first hurdle and stuttered over all the others. 2 seconds outside my PB for a silver medal. A good reward for a poor effort.
It is a delight to have a cohesive Heathside contingent here. Dulce and I had lunch with Noelle and Richard today, and we’ve managed to see them compete. Adrian Day is off gallivanting in a forest by a lake, just now, but he and I expect to be in the relays over the weekend. Competing at as high a level as you can is really what belonging to an athletics club means.
Noelle has competed in the 200m and 400m and Richard set a personal best in his 5000m race.
Adrian Day has had good runs in the 100m, 200m and 400m but with 5 and 6 heats at each distance these are tough competitions to progress.
Relays
Always a highlight of the championships are the relays on the closing weekend.
The older GB men have very considerable strength in depth. Adrian Day (M60) and I (M70) are hopeful to get into both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 teams at M60 and M70. My place in the M70 4 x 100 was guaranteed as there were only 4 M70 runners remaining and an M80 reserve. But from there on it was all a bit of a challenge.
Only Bruce and I put our M70 selves forward for the 4 x 400. Anthony (M80) offered to fill a spot but we couldn't find a fourth.
At M65 and M60 GB has immense strength in depth.
There is a picture below of the m60 and m65 4 x 400 gb relay teams. 3 of the M60 team are in the world top ten and the fourth is 17th. In the M65 team 2 in the top ten, 17th and me. I had Just a teeny bit of luck getting into the team with Steve (world no 2) Peters feeling a bit dicky, and Wally dropping out at the last minute. Having said that there were 8 teams on the track 2 @ M65 and 6 @ M60 and the GB M65 team came 3rd of the eight. As I say, strength in depth.
I've include a youtube clip of the M70 4 x 100 race. It shows the benefit of teamwork. If my youtube clipping has worked correctly you should see the start of the race. The M70 race is in lanes 1,2,3 and 4. At 6:23:13 into the video the handover from 3rd to 4th makes all the difference. My handover to Chris Monk goes well, the Finnish handover does not.
And talking of strength and depth the 4 most numerous teams were Finland (1,135), USA (342), GB (336) and Germany (321).
In terms of medals the numbers were Finland (328), Germany (158), GB (147) and USA (143).