British Masters Indoor Pentathlon Championships 2020

Lee Valley (GBR) 23 Feb 2020

46 participants, 12 of them women, entered for the British Masters Indoor Pentathlon Championships 2020. Although it was a Club Championships (South English Masters Championships), mixing it with the BMAF Pentathlon does add that much more atmosphere.

Sporting facilities in London for athletes of all levels

Web-Page of Lee Valley Athletics Centre: „Just one look at the award winning athletics centre tells you this is an elite location, one that trained gold medallists like Greg Rutherford and Jonnie Peacock for London 2012.“

Excellent results in the pentathlon

Outstanding was Diana Norman (W45, SCVAC), who set a new W45 British penthathlon mark of 4368P and improved the previous record of her sister Julie Mackin by 9 points. She will not be coming to the EMACI in Braga, for example to attack the European record 4435P of Maria Rosa Escribano Checa(ESP). In Braga, however, Penny Butcher (W60, 3822) and Sally Hine (W70, 3674) are registered. Both showed in Lee Valley that they are already in good shape with 3.822 and 3.674 points.

Diana Norman, an exceptional athlete

Bridjet Cushen, BMAF contact person & WMA Assistant Web Manager, about Diana Norman: “Diana is the sister of Julie Mackin and one of the large talented Bennett family. Since coming back into the sport as a Masters athlete, Diane normally enters several events from 60m up to 3000m, wins most of them, very often setting a record. She still competes as a Senior athlete in UK Athletics events and she has been running cross-country all winter. The longer distance, up to 6km, does not appear to slow her speed.”

VIPs

Among those present in Lee Valley were Evaun Williams and Donald Brown who will be honoured at EMACI in Braga in various categories as best European Masters athletes 2019.

Evaun Williams (W80)is EMA 2019 Best Masters Athlete “Overall”, „Throws“ and winner of WMA 2019 Best Masters Athletes “Throws”. In Lee Valley she mainly observed the shot put and coached Vilma Thompson (W65, SP 9.08. She raved about the womderful athletics centre in Lee Valley, where she trains regularly. Both Evaun and Vilma are favorites at EMACI 2020.

Donald Brown was named EMA Best Masters Athlete 2019 in the category “Sprint” and runner-up in the same category at WMA. By winning the awards, he sees himself in a position to better represent and promote Masters Athletics worldwide. He ran in Lee Valley in his first competition after a break of six months 60H in 9.08. For comparison: 2019 in Torun he became world champion at WMACI in 60H with the time of 9.02 seconds.