Notts ACs Masters athletes win medals at World Championships

A team of four very fit veteran athletes from Notts Athletics Club made the journey by train down to Clermont Ferrand in France for the recent World Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships and brought back a superb tally of 5 medals.

As usual the athletes were competing in 5 year age bands which start at 35 and go right up to 99!

Viv Oliver (55-59) once again performed superbly to win a Silver medal in the 60 metres sprint final but was disappointed to finish 4 th in the 200 metres after pulling his hamstring half way round. However he was strapped up in order to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the 4 x 200mteres relay and was rewarded by the team winning Gold medals in a new World record time.

Mark Dunwell (35 -39), who is becoming consistently successful in Masters competitions ,won Bronze medals in both the 60 metres and 200 metres sprints. Dalton Powell (40-44) has reached the top of his age band but still managed to win his heat and make the final of the 60 metres in which he came 6 th .

David Oxland (55-59) was the only representative from the club at middle distances. He ran in the outdoor 8 kilometre Cross country championship and finished 7 th . Tired after this he decided to miss one of his favourite indoor track races (3000 metres) and instead just to concentrate on the 1500 metres heats and final. He was rewarded with a Silver medal behind the World record holder Nolan Shaheed from the USA.

David, who is secretary of Notts AC said “ This was the equivalent of the Olympic Games for Masters athletes ! There is no higher level at which we can compete and I am absolutely delighted with our successes”.

Nottinghamshire Masters Athletes lead the way

A small but very successful contingent of athletes from Nottinghamshire competed at the recent British Masters Athletics Federation national indoor track championships.

Once again local clubs put aside their friendly rivalries and took on the UK 's most talented masters athletes. Competing in age bands of 5 years from 35 to 89, there were some great performances.

Viv Oliver of Notts ACs (55-59) was undoubtedly star of the sprinters on this occasion and won Gold Medals in the 60m and 200m sprints. His club mate and training partner Dalton Powell , who is now at the top end of his age band (40-44), won Bronze in the 60m and Silver in the 200m. Meanwhile Martin White of Mansfield ACs (35-39) ran a great 200m final to win a Silver medal whilst his club mate Chris Ashmore ran well in his heats, achieving good times in both the 60m and 200m and only narrowly missed the finals.

The husband and wife partnership from Notts ACs Fred (50-54) and Jane Pigeon (40-44) both came back from injury and were pleased to win Bronze medals in the 1500m and 3000m respectively.

David Oxland (55-59) of Notts ACs and Jim Munro (60-64) of Redhill Road Runners became running partners just over a year ago and they are now starting to reap the rewards of a year's hard training. David won Gold medals by a good margin and achieved the difficult double of 1500m and 3000m whereas Jim won Silver medals in the 800m and 1500m.

David Oxland said “These were very encouraging performances especially for those of us who are competing in the World Masters Indoors Championships in France in three weeks time. I would also comment that these performances, as well as being at the top level in terms of age-related performances, would also very good by most people's standards! Masters athletes at ages up to 65 and even beyond play a very important role in their local clubs and many can still compete well against much younger people.”

NOTTS SUPER VET WINS OLD SCHOOL RACE

David Oxland, aged 56,went back to his old school , Nottingham High School , for the annual cross country race between the boys and old boys, on 22nd December.

The other old boys who ran were not born when David left the school in 1969.

The race turned out to be a highly competitive run between David and two of the school-boys, one of whom –James Taylor – is a member of Notts.

Helped no doubt by his vastly greater experience, David narrowly won the race over 2.8 miles in Wollaton Park in a highly respectable time of 16 minutes 14 seconds.

Result 

1 st              David Oxland              16 minutes 14 seconds
2 nd             Craig Woods              16 minutes 24 seconds
3 rd              James Taylor              16 minutes 32 seconds
(7 others ran)

David Oxland gets his first England vest
David Oxland , veteran runner and member of Notts Athletics club, has been selected to run for his country by the Veterans Athletics Association of England . He will gain his first vest for England when he runs at a cross country match against the Northern Irish ,Scots and Welsh at Stormont Castle , Belfast on Saturday 17 th November.

David will be representing his country in his age group,55-59. His running companion from Redhill Road Runners , Jim Munroe , has been selected as a reserve runner in his age group,60-64, and Jim will definitely be attending the event as he is guaranteed a run even if he does not make the first team on the day.

The selection process is based on performances in races arranged by the British Masters Athletics Federation and also at Masters' international events during 2007. David is currently British champion in his age group at three distances from 1500 metres to 5 kilometres and also holds a silver medal at European level. Jim Munro made the final of the 1500 metres at the World Masters Athletics championships and is also the Midlands Masters champion at this distance in his age group.

Notts Masters runners do well at Jagermeister 10K

Only a small contingent of Notts ACs runners turned out on a warm evening to run along with over 350 other runners in the Jagermeister 10K on !0 th August 2007. This was also the Notts AAAs County Championship and the small turnout ,with none of the elite runners from the club being there, could have meant little or no success for Notts. Read More