Race report by Dot Kesterton

Following on from the World Masters Track and Field Championships in Gothenburg last month the England Athletics Association hosted a Home International meeting in Corby offering a full programme of events  to whet the appetite of both the seasoned and newcomers to Track and Field.

Northern Masters, NMAC, fielded an enthusiastic cohort of runners, jumpers and throwers in our attempts to top the area table of 9 associations including Scotland and Wales. This is bread and butter stuff for Striders Chris Ireland, M60 and Jed Turner M60 and I am beginning to get used to going round and round in circles but for Carol Beattie, W70 and Louise Rowley, W70 it was a fairly new departure

L to R: Jed Turner, Louise Rowley, Carol Beattie, Dot Kesterton, Chris Ireland.

We beetled down to Corby noting the lovely Leicestershire and Northamptonshire countryside on our way and arrived just in time for Louise and Carol to change into their new NMAC vests and warm up before our various events.

The idea is to accumulate as many points as possible over the various disciplines, 9 points for first down to 1 point for the last in each event. This is great because there is an incentive to compete not just for self but to build the points share. Just one point in an event added value to the total score. For this reason athletes were offering themselves in events well out of their comfort zones. Paul Kanna Barlow NMAC, for example sportingly took on the 2000m walk to earn a whole point for the team. Race walking is definitely not Paul’s forte, I reckon one or two Striders would have made a good fist of it for our area club.

Louise Rowley, W70 and I, running as W60 started our challenge in the 1500m. The level of competition is outstanding. Sarah Roberts and Angela Copson are W70 World Record Holders; Yuko Gordon is a former Olympian and Anne Dockery who won 5 silver medals  in Gothenburg were alongside. This was no Sunday afternoon picnic. A few nervous glances and a small wardrobe malfunction with safety pins and numbers on the line and then we were hustled into position and off on the gun. I knew it was short, sub 7 minutes for each of us but that doesn’t make it a breeze. How do you run a good 1500m when your normal race is six or seven times that distance at a greatly reduced pace? Well, Louise and I gave it our very best, me to come in 4th of 5 W60’s giving me 6 points and Louise 6th W70 and four points. Carol Beattie followed with an equally impressive line up in the 400m to take 7th place and win 3 points and Louise then ran 800m to earn 5th place and 5 points.

Chris and Jed collected 5 points apiece in the 1500m and 800m respectively.  Chris added four more points in the 300m hurdles, and Jed another four in the long jump – unfortunately pulling a hamstring in the process.  In total Steel City Striders contributed 36 points to the area club total, helping us to an overall second in the competition – an impressive result with such formidable opposition.

Check bmaf.org.uk/fixtures if you’re 35+ and interested in joining the T&F fun. You would have to join NMAC as your second claim club but the rewards of competing for the team are worth the effort.

Striders results: