British Masters Athletics Federation
Throws Pentathlon Championships – Saturday 2nd September 2017
North of England Masters Championships – Sunday 3rd September 2017
Kingston upon Hulls John Twiddle spent the weekend of 2nd / 3rd September in Sheffield where he competed in the British Masters Throws Pentathlon Championships on the Saturday and in the North of England Masters Championships on the Sunday.
Saturdays throws pentathlon saw John put in a throw of 40.43 metres with the 7.26 kg hammer which amassed a total of 678 points and a putt of 11.89 metres with the 7.26 kg shot garnered another 746 points for him and he threw the 2 kg discus out to 33.33 metres to bank another 668 points. These first three events put him on target for a score over 3000 points. His season’s best distance of 25.77 metres with the 800 gram javelin earned him just 302 points leaving him requiring a seasons best of 10.92m in the final discipline the 15.88 kg (35 pounds) weight throw to achieve a personal best points score. It was not to be however and he fouled all three attempts. This left him safe in the silver medal with a total points score of 2394.
Sunday’s North of England Masters Championships brought a change from Saturday’s warm weather to cool and breezy conditions. John competed in four events the hammer, shot, discus and the weight throw. He had a good discus competition improving on the previous day’s effort with a best throw of 34.84 metres. In the hammer he threw 38.94 metres and 11.67 metres with the shot. The weight throw event came at the end of a long weekend of competition. This time 5 of his 6 throws landed between the sector lines, his best effort measuring 10.63 metres. He was the gold medallist in all four of the events and he was ‘Fairly happy with everything considering Saturday’s exertions’.
Making his debut in a ‘Masters Event’ in Sundays competition was another Kingston athlete Simon Downs who competes in the (V40) age category he has been running under the Kingston banner since the spring of 2016. He has done the great majority of his runs in distance races with most of them out on the road. Since coming to Costello he has added track & field to his resume running distance and hurdles and has become a decent javelin thrower. Simon was in competition in the 3000 metres steeplechase where he was the gold medallist and ran a new PB of 10:20 .96 sec knocking 5.18 seconds off his previous best and he was also in action in the javelin event where he picked up a second gold medal of the championships, launching a new PB of 38.67 metres an increase of one metre on his previous best. Just 24 hours earlier Simon had competed at Saturdays City of York AC ‘Open Meeting’ where he had run a new PB of 10:20.96 sec in the 3000 metres (flat) race 3.54 seconds beyond his previous best and thrown 35.16 metres with the javelin. He was happy with his ‘Masters’ performances and added ‘That made up for a poor javelin display at York yesterday’.
