Masters National Indoor Multi-events, Feb 22nd
National Titles for Dave & Lesley
Two R&N athletes competed in the British Masters Indoor Pentathlon Championships at Pickett’s Lock, London, over the weekend and returned home with Gold Medals. This despite limited practise recently in the field events due to 2 weeks of snow cover on the track
Leslie Willis contested the Women’s O45 age group and lead from the first event, the 60m hurdles, clocking a personal best of 11.20s; 0.6 s faster than last year and showing that the training earlier in the year was effective. The High jump equalled last year at 1.24m but the shot put_7.02m, Long Jump_ 3.93m, and 800m_2:44.09 were all fractionally down on the previous year. However, thanks to the massive improvement in the Hurdles her score of 2922 improved on last year and gave her the title, 500pts ahead of her nearest rival. This keeps her 7th in the British all time best score rankings
Dave Cowley returned to the indoor scene hoping to repeat last years win in the O60 age group but carrying a nagging foot problem due to gout earlier in the month that had allowed no training for 2weeks. Although 5 were down to compete withdrawals due to illness left him the only athlete in his age group so the first hurdles race was combined with the hurdlers from different age groups. His 2nd place in 60mH_10.18s was fractionally faster than last year and the shot put_9.64m also beat last years marks but the LJ_4.44m and HJ_1.39m reflected the lack of specialist training due to the weather. The final 1000m _3:48.02 which he led for the last 2 laps was 12sec slower than last year resulting in a final score of 3503, 70 pts down on last year; but still the 3rd best score on the British best all time scores.
At the same venue on 7th March John Moreland, who is still the Northern Ireland record holder for the discus, started his 2009 campaign by winning the O/50 discus in the British Masters Winter Throws Champs. John recorded an impressive 46.07m with the 1.5kg discus to also claim a new club record in this division .
