Worcester Athletic Club’s veteran athletes celebrated the end of the 2022 league season with a brace of convincing victories in the South Midlands Veteran’s League.
Due to the pandemic, this was the first track and field fixture to be held at Worcester’s Nunnery Wood venue for three years.
Impressive results across the squad saw the club win both the men’s and women’s matches.
The league positions for Worcester’s men and women mean that the club has qualified for the Midland Vet’s Regional Cup Final, where they will take on clubs from across all three divisions of the league, spanning the whole of the Midlands.
The final is set to take place this Sunday, September 4.
Men’s results
Worcester athletes won the first two 200m races of the night, with Richard White and Laurence Oldfield winning the over 60 and over 70 races respectively.
Ben Reeves then showed great composure in the over 40 races, finishing in 25 seconds flat, his second fastest time at the distance.
Worcester swept the board in the 800m races with Dave Price, Matt Moon, and Derek Jackson winning the M35, M40 and M60 respectively.
In the 4x100m the untried quartet of Richard Houchin, David Shaw, Henry Hopkins and Ben Reeves won by a huge margin of nearly four seconds in 52.4 seconds.
David Shaw In the long jump pit produced a massive leap of 4:81 to win the M60 event, pushing him up to third in the UK M60 standings.
Marc Flannery was also outstanding in both the M60 hammer 26:45m and M40 shot Put 9:82m, winning both very easily.
Women's results
The opening Field Event was W50 Discus where Worcester’s team manager Mel Garland, who recently returned from the World Masters Championships, achieved one of her best distances of the season (19.84m) to clinch first place and eight team points.
Garland was back again later, this time in the W40 Triple Jump, where she once more claimed maximum points for Worcester’s Vet Ladies.
Dropping down an age group Iris Holder represented the club in the W70 Long Jump, her opening leap of 2.02m too strong for the opposition
In the field events, Worcester ladies scored a massive 37 points out of a possible 40, with the Bromsgrove & Redditch club on 32 and Stratford 27.
The track side of the competition starts with the 200m races, with Louise Kirby winning the W50 category with a time of 32.4s.
Then in the 800m races, Vickie Watkins returned from injury to run a solid 2’53.8 and collect seven team points in the W35 category.
Ros Townsend-Hope in the W60 age group ran really well but unexpectedly found herself up against the former European and World champion, Nancy Hitchmough, and finished second with a time of 3’17.1.
The final track event of the evening was the ladies 4x100m relay.
Angela Bryant on first leg did well to keep Worcester in touch before Amy Pinkney blasted up the back straight to open up a lead of about 25m.
Sara Saunders stood in for the injured Garland and was able to their lead.
Nicola Guiver then took the baton for the final straight as spectators cheered the Worcester Vet Ladies relay squad to victory.
When the scores were totted up Worcester Ladies had won the match by a considerable margin, 22 points, with Stratford second and Bromsgrove & Redditch third.
This victory ensured that Worcester Vet Ladies won the South Midlands Division of the Midland Veteran’s T&F League.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here