In the World Masters Indoor Championships in Gainesville, Florida, Britain won two gold medals in the men’s 3000m races on Tuesday (March 25) and also won a shot title as they kept their position easily in second on the medal table with 12 golds, 9 silvers and 13 bronzes albeit way behind the American hosts who have now won 53 golds and 172 medals.
Canada, who have the second biggest team (albeit a fraction of the Americans), are third in the table (12, 9, 13).
Michael Hausler won M65 shot gold with a 13.56m throw ahead of Latvia’s Saulius Svilainis (13.25m) as Britain’s John Moreland was eighth with 11.70m.
David Proctor used his 1:48.32 800m speed to win a thrilling M35 3000m race in 8:36.14.
Six runners were still in contention as the leaders passed 2000m in 5:53.29 but it was down to four as they hit 400m to go. The Sale Harrier fought all the way to the finish with Spain’s Ignacio Garcia Ramon, who had a few days earlier won cross-country gold, but a 61.59 last 400m and 2:41.59 final kilometre got him home with 22 hundredths of a second to spare.
Dave Clarke became the first Brit in Gainesville to win two individual golds as he followed up his M65 800m title the day before with a hard fought 3000m victory in a championships record 10:08.04.
American Daniel King set a fast pace of 3:21.61 at 1000m and 6:45.43 at 2000m with Clarke a foot behind and that was still the case as they swung into the finish straight.
Clarke kicked hard with 50m to go and a 37.25 last 200m edged him ahead by less than a second.
Cross country winner Jukka Kauppila was third with British 800m medallist John Thompson fourth in 10:36.65.
The top performance of the day actually came from Kenya who have a small team competing here.
Winning their second gold medal of the Games was Francis Bowen Kipkoech, who had a 27:45.20 10,000m and 2:08:01 marathon best. He set a M50 world record of 8:36.23 as he won gold by over half a minute.
Kenyan M50 Francis Bowen Kipkoech on his way to a world 3000m record of 8:36.23 lapping Canadian Craig Maclean
After a kilometre in 2:53.74 he was slightly down on schedule but thereafter he ran consistent 34 second laps to pass 2km in 5:46.73.
An acceleration to 31.95 saw him run a 2:49.50 final kilometre to better the previous record of 8:37.73 by Spain’s Juan Anthony Barranco.
Cross Country bronze medalist Brent Brodie of Britain was inexplicably seeded in the B final.
Consequently he had a lonely race winning by 35 seconds and was constantly in lane two lapping runners as he timed 9:20.27 and had he been in the A final he would almost certainly have won bronze. However he had to settle for an overall fifth when they combined the two races.
France’s Jean-Louis Esnault was also in world record breaking form as he followed up cross country silver and 800m gold with a world record 13:39.24 in the M85 event.
He finished with a 46.17 final circuit.
Britain did win four medals in other races though.
Germany’s Miguel Molero-Eichwin leads the M55 3000m with Mark Symes in eighth
The M55 800m champion Mark Symes made a rare forage into 3000m but came out second best to cross country champion Miguel Molero-Eichwein of Germany who won in a fast solo 9:16.64.
Symes, who had limited vision after a stroke a few years ago, has to be careful running in large groups and held back through a 3:12.65 opening kilo before moving up to second at 2km in 6:24.66 and then producing a 3:01.42 closing kilometre to take silver and his 9:26.08 was his quickest for five years.
He was chased home by team-mate Dave Cowlishaw who ran 9:29.85.
M55 podium – Symes, Molero-Eichwein, Dave Cowlishaw
Less than 24 hours after setting a 800m PB in winning the silver medal, Chris Loudon set another this time over 3000m as he won M40 bronze in 8:39.08 beating his previous best by 13 seconds.
That time broke the old championships record but he trailed two Americans Joseph Gray (8:28.25) and James Grabow (8:37.03).
Chris Loudon chases Joseph Gray in the M40 3000m
Gray, a 28:18.73 10,000m performer a few years ago, had previously won the cross-country and ran a last 2:46.33 opening kilometre.
Ron Cattle won his second medal of the championships following his cross country silver as he took M75 bronze in 12:35.46 after leading for much of the first 2000m.
The race was won by 800m runner-up Hans Smeets’ 12:24.31.
British born Canadian Simon Rayner just lost out in the M60 race to Netherlands’ Benjamin Romkes’ 9:59.61 to 9:59.84 after cross country champion John Meagher of Australia had led most of the race.
While British middle distance runners are largely out in force in Florida, the top sprinters are thinner on the ground and Britain won only a single men’s medal at 60m after two the previous day for the women.
That went to TJ Ossai who ran 7.28 to take M45 bronze by just nine thousandths of a second in a race won by Sweden’s Lion Martinez in 7.08.
That was a rare non home win as USA men, who dominated the cross country but failed to win a single 800m gold, were back on top at 60m.
They won M35, M40, M50, M55, M65, M70, M75, M80 and M85 titles and also most of the other medals too!
American Kenton Brown won the M80 60m in a huge world record of 8.76.
Briton Allan Long was fifth in 9.45.
Joshua Wood finished fourth in the M50 race in 7.45 behind three Americans led by Garth Robinson’s championships best 7.15.
Russell Whiting (7.68) and Kevin Craven (7.71) were fifth and sixth in the M55 category behind four Americans led by Arif Hussain’s championships and near world record 7.34.
German Roland Gregor denied USA M60 gold by eight thousands of a second in 7.67 with Brits Anthony Burniston fourth (7.90) and Pat Logan eighth (8.15).
Damien Leake (7.97) led a US clean sweep in the 70s with all the medallists breaking the previous championships best.
The M75s also clean swept led by NZ Bryant junior in 8.66 with Charles Ryder eighth in 9.80.
Charles Jackson took M35 gold in 6.97 just four thousands of a second up on Florent Ribet.
M40 Antoine Echols (6.95) was quickest.
Mongolian Radnaa Tseren added 60m gold to his 800m title as he won the M90 title easily in a championship record 10.94. The world record is 10.91.
Sadly, 104 year-old Sawang Janpram was a non starter after injuring himself in the shot.
Hurdles world record holder Joe Appiah gave the pentathlon a rare try and won the bronze with 3319 points with a 8.76 hurdles, 5.71m long jump, 8.01m shot, 1.64m high jump and painful 4:03.80 1000m.
He also qualified for the M50 60m final but jogged through last to save himself for his multi event.
Czech Marwk Volf won gold with 3682 points and Brit Grant Stirling (3199) was fifth.
Dash Newington (3409 with 10.10, 1.53m, 7.75m, 5.07m and 2:39.53 800m) and Jodie Albrow (3331 with 9.50, 1.41m, 9.07m, 4.69m and 2:42.46) took silver and bronzes in the W40 Pentathlon.
Gold went to Maria Serrano of Chile with 3493 points.
Janet Smith was third (41.26m) and Susan Jones (32.39m) was eighth in the W60 hammer won by France’s Claudine Cacaut’s championships record 47.19m.
Allan Leiper was fifth and top European in the shot with 14.00m as Scott Eriksson (15.37m) led another US clean sweep.
Multi world champion Guy Dirkin, a former 56.40m discus thrower and AAA finalist but now Florida-based, was fourth in the weight in 15.82m as Aussie Gavin Murray won with 17.73m.
Claire Cameron was eighth in the W65 hammer with 25.95m as Carol Finsrud led a US top four with 39.28m.
Nina Ridge was sixth in the W50 Pentathlon with 3358 points as American Marsha Baird won with 4156 points.
» Subscribe to AW magazine here, check out our new podcast here or sign up to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
