(scroll down for the latest events covered)
2017 was an unusual year for me. Shoulder injury dictated that I couldn't race all year, while I concentrated on rehabilitating the damage. It paid off, and I'm back racing in 2018, I hope.
____________________________________________________
SCVAC Indoor Championships, Lee Valley,
Sunday 18 February 2018
My return to racing! I was very happy to win my 200 metres, but less happy to irritate my right calf in doing so. It meant I had to pull out of the 60 metres. I guess it gave me a chance to get a few photos I'd not otherwise have taken.
Click here for a gallery of 192 shots of track events from the day.
____________________________________________________
UK Masters Inter Area Match, Lee Valley,
Sunday 4 March 2018
Some very bad weather in the days before this event had meant a number of the events were not well supported, but there were still enough there for the match to over-run by more than an hour!
There are 229 photos in my gallery. They are mainly from the events in the morning. I spent most of the afternoon warming up, racing and doing all of the hanging about that taking part entails.
Click here for the photos.
____________________________________________________
British Masters Indoor Championships 2018, Lee Valley
10 and 11 March 2018
Resting an injury before the European Masters a week later meant that I didn't compete in this year's British Masters Indoors. The up-side of that was that I got to shoot a lot of events I'd otherwise have missed.
Click here for a page which has the links to those photos.
____________________________________________________
European Masters Indoor Championships 2018, Madrid
19 to 24 March 2018
Click here for a separate page covering my experiences at the 2018 European Masters Indoors, and to see my photos from the week.
____________________________________________________
SCVAC Championships 2018, Ashford
Saturday 26 May 2018
To be frank, this was a poorly supported event. I nearly missed it, having got it into my head that it was on the following day! I had raced twice the evening before, and photographed my local parkrun before setting out for Ashford, so I wasn't feeling that great. It was also a very hot day. Nevertheless, I won gold in both of my sprints, and even took top spot in the national rankings for 2018 to date in one of them. I was, of course pretty worn out by the time I got home.
The gallery here is of the photos I managed to take while not racing, warming up, warming down, etc.
____________________________________________________
The first Masters Grand Prix, City Athletics Stadium, Sheffield,
Saturday 23 June 2018
Brainchild of sprinter and decathlete Darren Scott, who hopes this will become part of a series of such events around the country, the Grand Prix was a Masters and Open meeting, with track events seeded on entry times. This made for some very close racing, particularly in the 100 and 200 metres series. Great also to have UK international and Olympic athlete Jenny Meadows as announcer and commentator.
I raced three times during the day. I withdrew from the 200 metres as well. I don't know what got into me when I was making my entries! I was so busy warming up, racing, etc that I only really had time to shoot a basic set of photos of as many of the track events as possible. There were a few jumps and throws on the programme, but I'd not have been able to get even a representative set of shots of these. I mention this as fact, not apology. There is only one of me, and my own racing needs take priority.
You will find 213 photos from the day here
____________________________________________________
Masters Inter Area Match, Solihull, 8 July 2018
An apology
I raced three times during the 2018 Inter Area Match. It was a very hot afternoon indeed. I had said that, in keeping with my promise to myself to stop photographing events that I was racing in, because of the wear and tear this is increasingly having on me, I was not going to take a camera to Solihull.
Well, in the end, I did, but I was so busy on the track, and sheltering from the sun the rest of the time, that I only took a very small number of photos. I decided they were not worth posting here as a gallery.
If you think I might nevertheless have a good one of you from this event, contact me and I'll check.
____________________________________________________
Inaugural London Masters Grand Prix, Lee Valley Stadium,
Sunday 19 August 2018
After the success of the Sheffield Grand Prix event in June came the London event. A very similar format, and a few extra events. This was a great day of athletics. All credit to the organisers.
I raced twice in the time-graded 100 metres rounds, and led off a sprint relay team at the end of the day. For the rest of the time, I broke my own new rule, and photographed as much of the action as I could. Please bear my own race commitments in mind if you think I left you out of the photos.
You will find 226 photos from the event here.
____________________________________________________
British Masters Championships 2018, Birmingham
25 and 26 August 2018
A disaster weekend for me, sad to say. I had high hopes of winning my first BMAF outdoor title, in the 100 metres, but I pulled my right hamstring after just 20 metres and did not finish the race.
I took quite a few photos of events that morning and early afternoon, before departing to prepare for my own race, and these are here.
I did not stick around in Birmingham after my injury, and have no photos at all of the events at the end of Saturday or of those held on the Sunday.
____________________________________________________
WMA World Masters Athletics Championships 2018,
Malaga, Spain, 4 to 16 September 2018
Click here to go to the page I have set up for my Malaga photos. There are links from it to the pictures I shot on every day of the Championships.
____________________________________________________
SCVAC Masters League Final, Ashford
Sunday 30 September 2018
I have always regarded the SCVAC League Final as one of the great (and unsung) track and field events of the masters athletics calendar. This year was no exception.
Click here to see photos of the men's events.
Click here to see photos of the women's events.
____________________________________________________
Go to my main Masters Athletics Index page
Go to my Home Page
