British Masters Champs and horror at 3,500 feet

We had three Heathsiders at the BMAF Championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham over the weekend and all returned home with a medal.

David Spencer was denied gold in the 400m by the thickness of a vest (0.05 seconds), but he donned a larger vest and gained revenge in the 200m, running a PB and snatching gold from his erstwhile conqueror by an even narrower margin (0.03 seconds). Tony was a close second in the M50 steeplechase, while Neil took home bronze from the M65 800.

Other track and field in brief (results below)

• There was a great Heathside turnout at the Herne Hill Open, with Rich and Noelle pitched against each other in the 400 (1-0 to Rich). 

• Liam Garrett impressed at the Cambridge Harriers Open with a PB of 2:12 in the 800.

• Samuel Brown was in fine form at the Newham Open, netting a PB in the 100 and a season's best in the 200.

Horror at 3,500 feet for Higgins

Jane's ongoing quest to do races that make the rest of us feel jealous took a turn for the worse at the inaugural Scott Snowdonia Trail Marathon, which sounds like it was, if nothing else, fairly character building:

"It was extremely cold and wet and it only became finally clear at the top after 24 miles that the course was at least 2 miles longer than the 26.2 advertised," noted Jane in her expedition diary, while dining on the perished remains of another competitor.

"Nonetheless I descended in my usual style, ie as if my head was still attached to the top of the mountain and there was a pack of hungry wolves at the bottom."

Our roving reporter adds that if there'd been any way off the mountain other than running, she would happily have taken it, although it would be unmannerly of me to point out that Snowdon has a railway.

McCrickerd excels himself at Battersea Park

In the latest renewal of the Self-Transcendence 5k, Ryan McCrickerd charged home in a PB of 16:30, despite breezy condiitons. Dan Madams was also inside 17 minutes, Andy Welshman was 18:19 and Conor Forbes ran 19:35 for a possible PB.

Elsewhere south of the river, Ed Adams ran an impressive 1:25 for 15th place at the Wimbledon Common Half Marathon. 

Multisport corner

It's a double helping of Simon Hazel this week as he placed 10th vet in the Bucklers Hard Triathlon in the New Forest. A 1500m swim PB (aided by whatever the aquatic equivalent of a tailwind is) set him up for a 33rd place finish of 110 competitors.

Simon was also in action in l'Etape du Tour the previous week, riding from St. Jean De Maurienne to La Toussuire, over five Alpine passes, with some pretty staggering climbing percentages (to say nothing of the competitor drop-out rate). Simon reports a 9:48 finish time for the 139km course which, he wrily notes, Vincenzo Nibali covered in 4:22 last year.

Also mooching around France on a velocipede was Heathside's Hannah Carmichael, who completed her monster team ride to Perpignan in aid of Motor Neurone Disease.

Parkrun

This week saw first place finishes for Andrew Brooker, Rebecca Bunting, Andy Barnes and Stuart Meiklejohn.

View this week's parkrun results.

Results

British Masters Athletics Championships, Birmingham, 24-26 July

1500 metres M65
7 Neil Davies 5:43.37 s/b

800 metres M65
3 Neil Davies 2:48.6 s/b

3000 Steeplechase M50
2 Tony Kililea 11:20.27

400 metres M65
2 David Spencer 65.79

200 metres M65
1 David Spencer 28.72

Herne Hill Harriers Open, Tooting Bec, 25 July

100 SX 5
4 Alishia Abodunde 14.08

200 SX 6
6 Noelle O'Regan 28.46

200 SX 8
5 Helene Kehoe 31.48

300 SX 1
6 Helene Kehoe 51.15

400 SX 2
2 Richard Macaulay 55.32 
6 Noelle O'Regan 67.19

800 SX
14 Richard Macaulay 2:04.10

800 SX 2
1 Johnny Naylor 2:04.46

800 SX 4
1 Yanna Raykov 2:30.79

LJ W50
1 Helene Kehoe 3.31

Lee Valley Sprint Series Open, Lee Valley, 22 July

100 SX 3
8 Helene Kehoe 15.10

100 SX 5
7 Alishia Abodunde 14.16

100 SX 19
2 Jordan Glaze 11.03

100 SX 21
6 Selam Asefa 15.57

200 SX 3
8 Helene Kehoe 30.80

Active Newham Open Series, Newham, 22 July

100 SM h7
2 Samuel Brown 12.46 PB

200 SM 5
1 Samuel Brown 26.40 SB

Long Jump
4 Samuel Brown 5.17

Cambridge Harriers Open, Eltham, 22 July
800m
9 Liam Garrett 2:12.71 PB

Scott Snowdonia Trail Marathon, 26 July

178 Jane Higgins 6:54:36

Wimbledon Common Half Marathon, 26 July
15 Ed Adams 01:25:59

Self-Transcendence 5K Race, Battersea Park, 27th July
6 Ryan McCrickerd 16:30 
10 Dan Madams 16:50 
37 Andrew Welshman 18:19 
66 Conor Forbes 19:35 

Bucklers Hard Triathlon
33 Simon Hazel  2:21:20

(1500m Swim 23:54, 35k Bike 63:51, 11k Run 53:33)