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WORLD MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Ros Tabor and Janette Stephenson: battling for medals in the 1500m

PICTURES: ALAN RAMAGE

OCT 26-NOV 6

WORLD MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS, Perth, Australia

THE last six days of action (the opening days were covered in last week’s AW) saw hosts Australia consolidate their medal table lead over the Americans, while Britain remained third and saw off Germany after a number of gold-medal winning performances towards the end of the championships, writes Martin Duff.

Probably Australia’s most successful competitor was W40 Belinda Martin, who added fast 1500m and half-marathon victories to her earlier 800m, 5000m and 10,000m wins and with two team golds, she leaves Perth with seven gold medals.

Gaining most wins for the Brits were Carole Filer and Caroline Powell, who returned with four and three golds respectively, while W80 Anne Martin was the only British world record-setter as her 2000m steeplechase win in 13:38.34 went with a handful of minor medals.

Dalbir Singh Deol opened Great Britain’s account in the 200m with an M90 bronze while Tony Bowman was just pipped to M80 gold despite his 31.90.

With the wind behind the sprinters it was Brenda Fee who opened the Brits’ gold medal charge with a W70 win in 32.00. She was soon followed by over-60s Powell and Steve Peters, who both completed sprint doubles in 28.82 and 24.11 respectively.

There was no repeat of the qualifying controversy that Peters had endured in the 100m preliminaries, when he was left on his blocks after a false start that was not recalled. He was eventually allowed to run alone and qualify in a separate heat before going on to win the final.

TJ Ossai completed his M40 sprint double with 21.81, before Richard Beardsell went quicker to take the M35 title in 21.76, both with a following wind.

After retaining his 5000m title in the first week, Ben Reynolds was just headed by Kenya’s Paul Yego Kibet in the M50 10,000m, running 33:19.16. W70 Pauline Rich added to bronze in the 5000m with silver in the 10,000m. Martin Ford collected his second medal with an M70 10,000m bronze in 44:20.82. John Skelton added to his 5000m gold with 10,000m silver in 39:50.46.

Caroline Powell: in the 400m, claimed one of her three golds

American Kathryn Martin completed a W65 distance double after her world record in the 5000m, taking the 10,000m win in 42:34.97. The American added her second world record in the 2000m steeplechase with 8:57.54, although she was only second in the 1500m.

Britain’s leading walks hope, Ian Richards, was soundly beaten by Mexico’s Jose Camarena in the 10km as M75 Ed Shillabeer and M80 Will Norbert also won silver.

In the 20km walk, Richards was disqualified while trying to chase Camarena, who collected his third gold. This let in Britain’s Peter Boszko for M65 bronze. Shillabeer claimed his third medal with second here, while Norbert was the only M80 to survive and pocketed a walkover gold.

All the world records were by athletes in older age groups. One of the best was from W70 Aletta Ungerer. The South African ran 75.38 to head the 400m qualifiers ahead of Britain’s Brenda Fee, improving in the final to 73.97.