Several Cambridge Harriers male masters athletes had an outstanding season and we would like to highlight their notable achievements, writes Tim Carter.
Much mention has been made of Wole Odele already. I would emphasise his total commitment to all of our SCVAC matches and we all look up to him for his punishing training schedules which enables him to be probably the most successful masters athlete in Cambridge Harriers history along with Doug Lucas. The European and British Masters Championships have already been reported - but silver medals in 4x400m in both mixed 55 and M55 in the Europeans and M55 silver in 400m and triple jump at the British, crowned a great season. He ranks No 2 on the Power of 10 rankings for both M55 400m and triple jump.
Barry Ferguson is a legend of course - a total inspiration for competing at the highest level for M80, winning gold in the inaugural World Masters Indoors for 4x200m mixed relay and silver in the Europeans for M80 80m hurdles. Setting club records records for the 80mH and 200mH.
Wole Odele - Barry Ferguson
Congratulations Peter Wishart making the British Masters Indoor Championship podium for the M60 shot with bronze in February - first time at a masters national event. He completed perhaps the most satisfying season as a masters athlete in his opinion - other notable performances included M60 shot gold, M60 discus silver and M60 hammer bronze in Kent Masters Championships and repeated the club record for M60 discus.
Another club legend, Doug Lucas dipped his toe into the 400m circuit this season - a seasons best of 67.47s placed him 3rd on the M70 400m national rankings and 13th in the all-time-list, only 30 or so masters have achieved the tough qualifying time over 30+ years. This in addition to his previous M65 400m all time performance. He also ran 14.27s for 100m and 29.19s over 200m, ranking him 6th in his age group in both events. A great season for Doug.
Peter Wishart - Doug Lucas
Paris Hunt has been an outstanding masters team member for many years - multi-tasking over a number of events including 100/200/400m and HJ, TJ, LJ, shot, discus, javelin and pole vault always producing very solid and some excellent results. As M60, he ran a 400m PB of 65.50s.
Tim Carter - competing with Doug a great deal in order to reduce his M70 400m times, achieved a clocking of 68.93s placing him 27th on the all-time-list for the M70 400m (there are two Cambridge Harriers in the list) and 7th in the 2023 national rankings. This is in addition to his M65 400m all time performance. His 100m time of 14.61s and 30.43s for 200m placed him 12th and 11th on the 2023 rankings respectively. A pleasing overall performance.
Paris Hunt - Tim Carter
All of these impressive performances are well deserved as they would not be achieved without ability and most importantly 100% training commitment to defy the normal ageing process. The Masters are an extremely important section of the club and is definitely a section that other athletic clubs have respect for.