Masters Athletics 2013
SCVAC Indoor Championships, Lee Valley,
Sunday 17 February 2013
A long and not particularly well-supported afternoon, but one which nevertheless saw a good crop of championship best performances.
Click here for the pictures
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South of England/Eastern Vets and VAC Indoor Championships, Lee Valley,
Sunday 24 February 2013
This was a huge meet. It combined the Eastern Vets, Vets AC and South of England Masters Championships with the British Masters Indoor Pentathlon competitions. At one point there were, I think, as many as six separate events going on simultaneously in the stadium. Impossible for a single photographer to do them all proper justice when that happens.
We also suffered again from the simply dreadful lighting conditions of Lee Valley. I choose not to shoot with flash because it is off-putting to the athletes most of the time, and I’ve done the best I can in post-processing of the shots.
Click here for Women’s Events
Click here for Men’s Events
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British Masters Athletics Indoor Championships 2013, Lee Valley
Saturday 9 March and Sunday 10 March 2013
For me, a real marathon. For the first time for years, I was unable to play any active part owing to injury, so I had the opportunity to shoot the whole weekend’s events in the stadium. It was far harder than taking part!
Nevertheless, a great championships, with about half a dozen World age group records set during the course of the weekend, plus numerous national or European records.
For the sprints and hurdles events on the Saturday, I fought another battle against the poor lighting in the stadium, and, to be frank, I am unhappy with quite a few of those shots. I’m told the stadium can’t use its spotlights in this part of the arena because they interfere with the electronic timing system for the sprint straight.
Some of these are large galleries, so I have split the weekend’s pictures into four sections:
Click here for Men’s events, Saturday
Click here for Women’s events, Saturday
Click here for Men’s events, Sunday
Click here for Women’s events, Sunday
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Please Note:
Unfortunately, I did not attend the European Veterans Indoor Championships in San Sebastian. Injury prevented me entering as an athlete and I decided it would be too painful, in more ways than one, just to attend as a photographer.
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Masters Athletics Inter Area Match, Lee Valley
Sunday 7 April 2013
Sponsored by England Athletics, this was the first Masters Inter Area Indoor event. It was really quite a success, though very late in the season for some, including those who had peaked for the European Championships and didn’t want any more indoor events.
Last time for nearly a year that I get to take photos in the awful lighting at Lee Valley. Phew!
Click here for photos from the day
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SCVAC Championships, Julie Rose Stadium, Ashford
Sunday 2 June 2013
Injury prevented me from taking part, but even as photographer, I found this event very sad. Only 84 athletes had entered and only around 50 turned up. Most events had minuscule fields, or were virtually (and occasionally literally) solo time-trials for the competitors. A good hard look needs to be taken at the viability of the SCVAC Championships. On present showing, they’d not be missed if, as in 2012 (owing to lack of officials) they were abandoned.
Nevertheless, well done to those who took part and officiated.
Click here for photos from the day
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BMAF Pentathlons, Women’s 10k, and 10k Track Walk Championships,
Oxford, Sunday 23 June 2013
A busy, blustery day at Oxford. Great field for the track walk, but numbers were fairly subdued for the other events, the women’s 10k in particular, which was a pity, given the talent there is in Masters racing. The photos in this gallery are in the order they were shot as the day unfolded, so the events might appear a little jumbled at times. That’s just how it was!
Click here for the day’s photos
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England Athletics Masters Inter-Area Match
Solihull, Sunday 21 July 2013
There was a time when I would have rated this as probably the best Masters event in the country save only for the BMAF national championships. I’m no longer prepared to say that. Although there were a few great performances, much of the overall standard was quite poor, with small teams, made up from athletes willing to travel to the event and do two or three races. That’s why you’ll tend to see the same faces again and again in the photos.
Click here for the day’s photos
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BMAF Decathlon and Heptathlon Championships
Oxford, Saturday 27 July and Sunday 28 July 2013
I love this championships, though I have no chance whatsoever of ever taking part in it, except as a photographer! The atmosphere and camaraderie amongst the competitors is great, the organisation is extremely competent. It works me very hard. One year I’ll bring a pedometer or something and map how much distance I cover over the two days!
Well done to all the athletes, and particularly to the three ladies who took part in the full decathlon alongside the guys!
Click here for Saturday’s heptathlon and decathlon photos
Click here for Sunday’s heptathlon and decathlon photos
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BMAF Men’s 10,000m track Championships
Oxford, Sunday 28 July 2013
There were three races during the course of the day. There was, of course, a full-blown decathlon and heptathlon championship going on as well at the time, and I felt the 10k races got a bit “lost”. The field for a couple of the races wasn’t that big. Wrong time of year for some, perhaps?
Click here for the photos of the three races
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BMAF Championships, Birmingham,
September 2013
The BMAF Championships took place while I was on a 6 week visit to the Alps. I did not compete or take photographs, as a result. Sorry.
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WMA World Masters Championships, Porto Allegre, Brazil
October 2013
I never had any intention to travel to Brazil for what, from an early stage, looked like a poorly-planned and over-expensive episode of the WMA Championships. In any event, I was in the Alps until a day or so before they began.
So, no photos.
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Photographs and more, by Tom Phillips
