LWAC - European Master Indoor Championships - Helsinki

Four Lincoln Wellington athletes travelled to Finland to represent Great Britain in the European Veterans Indoor Athletics Championships in Helsinki.

Dorothy Fraser (Dot) was one of the first to compete and looking forward to setting a host of personal bests for her new W70 age group. Starting with the heats of the 60m sprint, which involved 10 athletes from 7 countries, Dot won her heat in 10.51s to make the final 6, before going faster to gain a silver medal in the final in a personal best time of 10.47s, the gold going to Estonia in 10.42. Dot went one better in the 200m winning her heat comfortably to whittle down the field from seven to six and then winning the final to gain a gold medal in another personal best of 35.48s. Dot found only 3 competitors had signed up for the 400m and she dominated the race for another gold in a third personal best of the weekend in 86.22s.
Next up for club and country was Denise Timmis contesting for a medal in the Long Jump in the W45 age group. In a field of 10 from 8 countries Denise finished a very respectable 5th with a jump of 4.43m the winning jump going to Poland in 5.36m. Denise found the W45 200m well supported with 17 competitors from 10 countries split into 3 heats. With only the winners and 3 fastest losers to go through to the final it was always going to be tough. Denise finished 3rd in her heat and 9th overall in a time of 29.61s.
John Moore also had a daunting 200m representing the M55 age group with an entry field of 26 from 11 countries. In the quarter finals only the first 2 were to go through, John just missing out on the next round coming 3rd in his heat in 27.14s. John followed this with a 5th place in the 400m heats in 61.43s placing him 11th overall out of 17 entries.
Adrian Marston faced a demanding task in the M45 800m with a massive field of 35 entries from 12 countries. With only the winner from 4 heats and 2 fastest looser to go through to the final 6, Adrian ran a personal best of 2m 05.72s to give the 3rd fastest time of the day and put him in the final, where he finished 5th in a time of 2m 09.12s, with gold going to Spain in 2m 04s. Another testing final came in the 1500m, with another large entry of 31 competitors the race was split into 3 finals with the times giving final position. Adrian found himself in a slower run final but ran an excellent 2nd place closing down the Irish winner to 100th of a second in a time of 4m 29.49s, placing him 15th overall.
The final task of the weekend went to Denise and Dot in their respective 200m relays. Denise ran in the W45 relay team, taking over in 2nd on the 3rd leg she put the team into 1st place before the final runner stormed to a clear victory to give Denise a well earned gold medal. Dot dropped down an age group to help make up a team in the W65 age group. Running first leg she handed over the baton in 2nd and the team went on to win, giving Dot her 4th medal and 3rd gold of the meeting.

All athletes are now looking forward to the World Championships in Italy in September 2007.

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