United States enjoy great success on home soil but Brits are the best of the rest halfway through this global event
Despite its track runners drawing a blank, British athletes still gained five golds on day five (March 27) at the World Masters Indoor Championships in Gainesville, Florida, to go further clear on the medals table as top visiting nation.
Paula Williams, who already held the world masters outdoor shot title as well as the European indoor and outdoor titles, completed the quartet of major masters titles when she added the world indoor crown to her list of achievements.
It wasn’t easy though for Williams whose luggage arrived many days after she did in the USA!
Paula Williams
Germany’s Jeannette Denz led with a 13.46m opener as the Brit threw 13.28m in the first round and 13.40m in the fourth before unleashing a 13.62m in the final round to take gold.
Long jump medallist Di Norman finished seventh with 11.69m.
Dale Newington, who had already won W40 pentathlon silver and long jump bronze, added pole vault gold when she jumped a championships best 3.70m in a jump off with American Miranda Smith.
Commonwealth Games vaulter Irie Hill added to her many master titles as her 3.10m championships best gave her a 50cm victory in the W55 competition and she also beat all the W50 vaulters too.
John Moreland dominated the M65 discus with a 50.39m throw and he had four other throws better than the runner-up Saulius Svilainis’s best of 45.52m.
Susan Payne won the W65 3000m walk by 45 seconds as she put together kilos of 5:55.06, 6:10.97 and 6:10.41 for a 18:16.44 victory ahead of Canadian Nancy Patten.
Aleksandra Majewska-Ani’s 17:23.67 got her W35 silver behind Aussie Melissa Lewis’s 16:08.23.
Melanie Garland finished second in the W60 long jump with a 4.08m leap behind pentathlon champion Neringa Jakstiene’s world record 4.77m.
The American received the award for the being world masters athlete of the year for 2024.
Eleanor Gatrell finished second with a 12.73m throw in the W45 shot competition won by Ukraine’s Tetiana Nasonova’s championships best 14.52m.
Jeanette Ashton, who was second in the W65 pentathlon, added another silver in the long jump with a 3.51m leap as USA’s Pamela Callahan took gold with 3.75m.
Briton struggled for medals in the men’s 200m with Tennyson James’ M65 200m silver in 26.17 being the only medal highlight behind Aussie Rob Mayston’s 26.17.
Briton had three finalists in the M60 category but Anthony Burniston (26.91), Wole Odele (26.49) and Pat Logan (26.59) ended up fourth to sixth.
USA won the majority of events but the fastest time overall was Saudi M35 Shaker Salim who ran 21.78.
Carolyn Derbyshire was fourth in the W45 3000m walk in 17:42.49.
Saudi Arabia’s Salem Alahmadi, who already won high jump gold added the M55 triple jump in a world record 13.66m.
The M50 competition was only won with a 13.07m jump by France’s Philippe Urie with Briton Grant Stirling fourth with a 12.36m leap.
Myrtle Mensey of the USA, gained a W75 world record in the weight where she threw 16.82m.
Canadian Carol Lafayette-Boyd added the W80 long jump title to the 60m with a 3.41m championships best.
American Kay Glynn set a championships record 3.80m in the W70 long jump.
M90 200m winner Radnaa Tseren of Mongolia
Mongolian Radnaa Tseren, who had already won M90 gold at 60m, 800m and triple jump, scorched to an impressive world 200m record of 37.12.
At the end of day five, USA (82, 96, 87) easily topped the medal table from GB (21, 15, 17), Germany (12, 13, 12) and Canada (11, 6, 12) but it should be noted the USA have eight times as many athletes here as Britain.
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