Masters Athletics 2015



South of England/Eastern Vets and VAC Indoor Championships, Lee Valley,
Sunday 15 February 2015

My own season opener as a competitor. The same for quite a few other Masters. However, as last year, I intentionally left the camera at home in order to concentrate on getting back into racing, so I have no photos of this meeting.

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SCVAC Indoor Championships, Lee Valley,
Sunday 22 February 2015

I raced twice at these Championships (one bronze medal, thanks for asking) and fitted my photography around warming up, waiting to race, etc. Therefore, I missed quite a lot, as usual.

But there are nevertheless 175 photos here.

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British Masters Indoor Championships, Lee Valley,
Saturday 7 March and Sunday 8 March 2015

I've posted two large galleries here, containing almost 800 photos in total. As usual, more by way of explanation than apology, let me say there are several gaps in my coverage. I raced three times myself over the Championships weekend (and won a bronze medal, thanks for asking), so quite a lot of my time was taken up warming up, waiting to race, and actually racing. You try it some time!

Photos from Saturday's events here.

Photos from Sunday's events here.

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European Masters Championships Indoors 2015 (EMACI 2015),
23 to 28 March 2015, Torun, Poland

I have a page for photos from Torun here.

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SCVAC Championships, Ashford,
Saturday 30 May 2015

There are 248 photos in this gallery. That's at least one shot of most people who took part, in each of their events. However, I promised I'd stop apologising to those I missed - the reason I missed you is that I raced in two events myself, and won two gold medals. More important to me than the photos! So, deal with it, sprinters (in particular)!

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England Athletics Masters Inter-Area Match, Solihull
Sunday 19 July 2015

I worked hard at this match! I raced three times, which really ate into the time and energy I had available to photograph the action. Therefore the gallery here is a little limited. But, as I've said plenty of times before, if that's a problem for you, you try it sometime!

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British Masters Championships, Birmingham
Saturday 25 July and Sunday 26 July 2015

As so often seems to happen, these Championships were blessed with one day of warm weather and favourable winds (for a sprinter, anyhow!) and one day of the most awful cold, wet misery that a British summer can deliver. Nevertheless, they proved to be my own best British championship event, with my first ever silver medal (100m) and a 200m bronze. When not warming up/down or racing, I was shooting the action. So, if there is nothing here of you, you know where I probably was, and what I was doing. Sad, but I've only ever really mastered the art of being in one place at one time!

Photos from Saturday's action are here.

Photos from Sunday's action are here.

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World Masters Championships, Lyon, France,
Tuesday 4 August to Sunday 16 August 2015

I have created a separate page for these Championships. It's here and covers everything I shot over two exhausting weeks in Lyon. Still, coming home as a World Champion, with a gold medal to prove it was compensation!

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SCVAC League Final Match, Ashford,
Sunday 6 September 2015

I got to photograph all of this, because, for the second year in a row, my Club's men's team didn't make it to the League Final. That's a shame, because I rate this as one of the very best Masters events of the year. Our Blackheath & Bromley ladies made it there, though. There are two galleries of photos from a long day's athletics:

Women's match photos here.

Men's match photos here.

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British Masters Decathlon and Heptathlon Championships, Birmingham
Saturday 19 September and Sunday 20 September 2015

For everyone involved, this was an incredibly busy weekend. The sheer variety of masters athletics (and, of course, masters athletes!) on display was huge. I worked two ten hour days behind the camera, without a break. Many officials who enabled the whole event to happen worked even longer hours than me. At times there were up to six events going on simultaneously in different parts of the stadium, and I was very thinly stretched with my one camera. The weather ranged from beautifully warm and sunny through to overcast and distinctly cool. Events began as the early morning dew was burning off, and ended as evening began to fall. I think I was beginning to fall by then as well.

Here's what was on offer:

British Masters Decathlon Championships - Being Masters events, there were competitions for all Masters age categories. Those aged 60 and above were grouped into one competition, which brought a European decathlon record for my good friend Tony Bowman. Tony broke four British M80 records during the event (100m, high jump, 400m and 80m hurdles). Phenomenal. He'd passed the former British M80 decathlon record after just six of the ten events! There was also a decathlon event laid on for athletes under the age of 35, which was well supported by guys from the RAF.

Click here for Saturday's photos

Click here for Sunday's photos

British Masters Heptathlon Championships - Sadly, this was a far less well supported event than the decathlons. I also managed to miss some events in it because they were all over so quickly. Britain can boast some of the best heptathletes in the world, as the results from Lyon proved, but most of them were missing.

Click here for the photos from both days

British Masters Throws Pentathlon Championships - The throws pentathlon always attracts a big field of many of our top throwers, and a very wide age range. Because it takes place while the decathlons, heptathlons and other events are going on in the stadium, it is very hard for a solo photographer to do it justice. I was simply unable to shoot much of the hammer competition because of safety concerns around shooting into direct sun while standing in the line of fire (!), and was prevented from taking photos from the infield while the discus and javelin competitions were going on simultaneously. Please bear that in mind before moaning that I missed much of the action. I know. I had choices to make, and I stand by those choices. It was good to get a decent set of photos from the weight throw competition, though. An event that is a bit of a Masters speciality.

Click here for the photos

British Masters Classics - These competitions were invented last year, but abandoned due to lack of support. Enough athletes signed up this year to allow a 100m, 200m, 400m and one mile competition. The Classics deserve much more support, folks!

Click here for the photos

M50 World Record Attempt 4 x 800m relay - A strong team of four of Britain's best M50 800m runners took on a team from local Bournville Harriers in an attempt to wrest the 4 x 800m record from the USA. The guys came within two tantalising seconds of the record.

Click here for the photos

British Masters 10,000 metres Track Championships - These involved four races, one being the 10k track race walk event.

Click here for the photos

I have to say that I am proud of the extent, variety and quality of my photos from this weekend!

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