The Harriers veterans have completed another enjoyable season in the Midland Vets Track & Field League. Sadly, the numbers competing were the lowest for many years, but there were some excellent performances and a good number of club records were broken.
Kathy Coleman took over as team manager and led by example, setting club records in the W55 javelin and the one mile walk, whilst husband Richard showed remarkable versatility in the field events, breaking five different M55 club records over the course of the summer!
Andy and Pete Mills were unbeatable in their throwing events. Andy’s 40 metre discus throw ranked him in the UK M50 top 5 and Pete recorded two victories in the M45 javelin.
On the track, Pete Goringe won three times, in the M60 Mile, 3000m and 800m, and broke his own club 1500m record.
Top points scorers were Margaret Barker (W70) and Mike Herring (M80) who both also won gold medals in the British Masters Championships, Margaret won a Gold in the discus and a Silver for the Shot and Mike a Gold in the Pole Vault and a Silver in the High Jump.
Margeret Barker & Mike Herring multiple medal winners at the British Masters
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Dave Folgate, Sam Brockway, Claire Brooker and Steve Sinnott also picked up valuable points for the club, and Pauline Wright and Paula Sinnott did sterling service as officials.
However, there were very many events where we were not represented and this was reflected in our final league positions of 6th (men) and 7th (women) out of 7 clubs. It was a similar story in the B Cup final, in which over the years Kettering have almost always finished in the top 2; this year the men were 5th and the women 6th.
Veterans athletics is tremendous fun and athletes of all abilities can take part in a range of events in a friendly and very supportive atmosphere. We would urge all KTH members over the age of 35 to “give it a go”. You may be surprised by how much you enjoy it!
Kathy can be contacted at [email protected]