Crawley’s David Beattie did a “Mo Farah” to strike gold in the European Master’s Track and Field Championships at Aarhus in Denmark.
The former winner of the London to Brighton Road Race in 1990 and oft times Sussex Masters Cross-country champion, who has been a leading Sussex runner in his age group since he attended Lewes Priory School, has really made his reputation as a Road Runner.
In Denmark however he tackled the M70 10,000m race and was quite happy to keep with the early gentle pace.
A heavy shower had left conditions rather humid but after the half-way mark the German athlete pushed to pace for a few laps and then the Danish runner established a thirty metre lead until Beattie pegged him back.
Beattie then decided to do a “Mo Farah” and go hard just before the bell and he held his form well and crossed the winning line some ten seconds ahead of his nearest rival in 43:32.69s.
There was a silver medal for Longhill School-teacher Leanne Buxton in the W35 heptathlon.
Buxton clocked 15.10s for the 100m hurdles, did a W35 PB of 1.50 in the high jump put the shot 11.19m and clocked 27.35s for the 200m to lie second overnight.
On the second day she long jumped 5.16m threw the javelin 29.36m but needed to beat Grete Kreb from Germany by six seconds in the 800 metres to win the crown. Unfortunately Buxton, who is at the top end of this age group only managed to beat her by two seconds in 2:29.36s and had to settle for the silver medal with an age corrected total of 4834 points to the winner’s 4867.
Another Sussex athlete at the top end of his age group is Steyning’s Ian Richards who is a serial gold medal winner at these championships. Richards had to settle for a couple of silver medals in the walking events.
In the M65 track 5000M Walk, he recorded 26m 26.41s to the winner Patrice Brochot’s (France) who won in 26m 05.64s. Brochot has only just come up to the M65 age group.
Brochot also won the Road 20K, which started in heavy rain, recording 1h 49m 10s to Ian’s 2nd place 1h 50m 52s.
At the other end of an age groupings Brian Slaughter from Eastbourne celebrated his 60th birthday on the first day of the championships and moved up into the M60 group.
Competing in the M60 age group Decathlon championship Slaughter, who has won several Master’s medals as he has progressed through the 5-year age groups, had a tremendous battle with the German all-round Rolf Hepperle and although the Eastbourne athlete led overnight he had slipped to second as they went into the final event, the 1500m.
Like Leanne Buxton in the Women’s event Slaughter pegged back his rival’s lead but the gap was too large and he had to settle for yet another second place for Sussex totalling 7018 to the winner’s 7184 points.
World Championships
It was a disappointing day for Rob Mullett from Lewes in his heat of the 3,000 metres at the London Stadium on Sunday.
Mullett the fastest of the British trio and British Champion was well below par as he looked rather heavy legged from the start of his heat. He never got involved with the race and was almost tailed off as he finished twenty seconds outside his best, which he needed to do to get into the final.
This run would suggest that he was unwell.
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