Press Report. 12th March 2018
British Masters Indoor Championships
Lee Valley
10th-11th March
Ilford Super-vet John Batchelor managed to take four M75 golds this weekend in the British Masters Indoor Championships to match last year’s performance.
On Saturday John took the 400m in a time very close to last year’s performance with a start to finish blast in 74.61 seconds, and followed that with the 1500m in 5:54.87.
On Sunday John came close to beating the top M70, Rod Scholes, in an exciting 800m in which he moved from 5th to 2nd in the final 250m, taking the M75 title in 2:50.30.
By the 3000m race, one hour later, competing with very much younger and faster athletes, John was content to run towards the back of the field and clock close to a season’s best with 12:56.50.
In two weeks John starts a three-race campaign in the European Masters Championships in Madrid.
Milton Keynes 20
11th March
With last weeks ‘Essex 20’ race cancelled due to the snow, Ilford AC runner Carlie Qirem travelled up to Milton Keynes to race over the 20 mile distance this weekend.
Carlie, in training for both the Paris and London Marathons in April, put on her ‘lucky socks’ and ran a steady race on her 20 mile debut.
The race starts in the City centre and travels down the dual carriageways out to a beautiful scenic countryside and back, and is always well supported with locals cheering on the runners and handing out jelly babies with plenty of music played on route.
For the most part the race is fairly flat except for a really cruel hill at mile 19 that takes you to the finish.
Carlie ran a consistent pace throughout the event, finishing in 2hrs 50mins 24 secs for 333rd overall in a field of 939 and was 65th female home of 365 female entrants.
