"Age shall not weary them" was certainly applicable for club
veterans who participated in the BMAF 5k Championships in Horwich
on June 20th. With superb individual performances, our
O/70 team retained the BMAF National title from last year and the
O/60 team were bronze medallists.
The O/70 team were depleted two days before the race by the
withdrawal of their leading runner, Brian 'Elbows' Gane due to a
very special family occasion. The problem was solved by
'young' Derek Nicholls, the new boy on the squad
this year. In fantastic form and another magnificent PB, Derek
moved from fourth counter in the last race to take on the leading
role and bring the team home as national champions.
This performance demonstrated the decision of team manager Don
George, to operate a 'youth' policy for the O/70 section!!
Keith Briggs ran his usual consistent race to
follow as second counter, showing a real battling spirit. The
third runner to complete the course was Ted
Howarth, who has returned to the club after a few years
absence, running as well as ever.
Mike Howe came in as fourth counter running
well below his normal high standard due to a persistent hamstring
problem. With the team packing so well, it was no surprise they
once again finished as national champions with Derek missing out on
an individual medal by just one place.
Surprise bronze medallists were out O/40 team. Kevin Mc
Kay, our former Olympian and Britain's No.1 middle
distance runner from the 80/90's was back in rare competitive mode
and showed his athletic flair of former days by clocking 17:16;
Frank Cordingley ran a year's best of 18:14;
Gary Willcock had expected faster but still
produced a good time of 18.33 and Jim Lambe ran a
'stormer', recording 20:35 as he prepares for the Helsinki marathon
later in the year. It was enough!
Following a lot of confusion, our O/60 team of Mike
Dunne, Terry Lonergan and Fechin
Mc Cormick were awarded bronze medals, but several days
later it became known it was our MV40 team should have been awarded
them instead.
Well done to Jackie Cordingley who was our only
female competitor and vindicated her ability by finishing
'national' fifth in her age-category.
(For full results, log onto www'race-results.co.uk)