On an otherwise quiet weekend for Ilford
Athletic club super veterans Pam Jones and John Batchelor both
struck Gold in the British Masters track championships held in
Birmingham. On Saturday Batchelor was expecting a lot of trouble
from Steve James in his M65 5000 event and had prepared himself
accordingly. After being tracked by his arch rival for two laps the
Ilford man used his wise old racing head and put in a couple of
short bursts to discourage any opposition.This in turn helped him
to pick up his own pace breaking away for a solo run and finishing
in 18.41.66 which was ten seconds faster than he recorded in the
corresponding race last year. Pam Jones won her 5000m event as the
only W70 to finish in 24.55.72. Batchelor admitted that there was no
way he could return on Sunday to struggle round 25 laps of the
gruelling 10000m event. Yet this was no deterrent for the evergreen
Jones who duly completed the 5000/10000 W70 double in 24.55.72, a
few seconds faster than her Vet's AC record road run last week.
Iain Campbell produced his
characteristically gutsy run in the M45 5000m but could do no better
than fourth in a very competitive event, finishing in 16:10.71.
Daniel Moore (MMAC) 15.44.15 and Mike Boyle (VAC) had a tremendous
battle for gold clocking15.44.09 and 15.44.37 respectively.
Much further afield Peter Spelman
completed the Davos C42 Marathon in a very good time of 4 hours 17
minutes. Subtitled "The Crazy Peak Experience", this challenging
race offers amazing Alpine scenery and challenging terrain, taking
place at 2300 metres above sea level. Although 10 minutes slower
than last year Spelman reported that "like the London Marathon,
conditions were very warm". This time gave the amiable Ilford
athlete an excellent overall position of 31st and 3rd in his
category.
Elswhere it is good to note that one of
Ilford's favourite sons, Robert Nixon, is alive and well and
racing again. Despite being some way off peak fitness Nixon
managed a very respectable 27.11 for 16th place in the Notts
5 which boasted a top class field including Notts AC's Billy
Farquaharson and Charnwood's Tara Kryzwicki. Farquaharson
claimed the race in a very classy 24.05 with Kryzwicki the
women's winner some 3 places down on Nixon. More
encouraging was Nixon's recent time of 4.06.4 for 3rd in the
Charnwood open 1500 behind Olympic 800m semi finalist Ricky Soos
(4.00.6).
