British silver medals for PANVAC shot put masters, Thomas was top local at National cross country event
A pair of PANVAC throwers picked up shot put silver medals at the British Masters Indoor Championship at Lee Valley over the weekend.
Simon Achurch threw 12.59m to take second place in the over 50 event, while Kevin Bates won over 70 silver with a throw of 10.08m. Jim Gillespie was fifth in the over 60 shot with a 8.97m throw.
There was a gold medal win for John Spriggs in the Over 70 triple jump with a leap of 7.52m, but this was a very sparsely populated event. Kelly Sutton was another silver medalist in over 50 women 200m with a time of 28.84.
A week after winning silver at the Eastern Masters Championship, Julian Smith finished fourth in the over 55 200m. He was an agonising 1/100th of a second off bronze.
Smith clocked a time of 25.75, but did not race the bronze medalist head-to-head as the medals are decided on the fastest times run in three separate heats. He did have the consolation of setting a PANVAC age group club record.
Simon Fell ran a time of 4:34.46 when finishing 9th in the over 45 1,500m.
NATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY
Nine Peterborough & Nene Valley AC athletes made the long journey north to Sedgefield in County Durham on Saturday to run in the National Cross Country Championship.
Thomas Preston was the star of the show finishing 17th out of 134 in the under 20 men's race. His father Andrew Preston led the PANVAC senior men, finishing 506th out of 1046 runners. Oliver Mason placed 529th with Alex Curtis coming home in 557th position.
Louie Hemmings had a good day, finishing 84th as a first year under 17 in a 209-strong field.
Finlay Smith finished in the middle of the field in the under 15 race crossing the line 133rd.
Monica Stuart was the 191st under 13 girl with her brother Solomon Stuart the 223rd under 13 boy. Eddie Radford finished 176 in the same race.
OPEN RACE
PANVAC’s Nathan Bunting finished fifth in the Lee Valley Middle Distance Open 1,500m.
Bunting ran a time of 4:05.66 and finished a fraction of a second behind fourth-placed Orton based Hunts AC athlete Brandon Ballard. Ballard crossed the line in a time of 4:05.42.
COMING UP
The sixth and final race in the popular Frostbite League series takes place at Jubilee Park, Huntingdon on Sunday (March 1).
Yaxley Runners are currently third in the senior competition and PANVAC are currently third in the junior event.
The Oundle Road Races also take place on Sunday. There are 20k, 10 mile and five miles races.
PANVAC athletes start their East Anglian League season on Sunday, April 19, the same day as the London Marathon.