British records for Clare Elms, Helen Godsell and Lisa Boland and we look forward to the inaugural London Masters International this weekend
Multiple world masters champion Clare Elms continued her relentless record breaking by improving her British W60 marks at 5000m and 3000m while Helen Godsell improved the W70 200m record and W40 Lisa Boland also impressed, Steve Smythe reports.
Elms had already set a UK 5km road best this summer and at the Tracksmith event at Battersea on July 9 she took almost 20 seconds off of her track record from last year despite temperatures well over 30C. She reeled off the first four kilometres around the 3:40 mark before kicking in a final kilo of 3:30 for a time of 18:11.08 and feels she can go significantly quicker in better conditions.
A week later Elms was back in action at 3000m at an open meeting at Aldershot on July 17. Her first lap was a little slow but she reeled off repeated kilos around the 3:30 mark and improved her 2024 UK record by a few seconds but just missed the world record with a time of 10:31.73. Her previous best 3000m this year was her world indoor W60 record of 10:43.34 in Ireland.
Another world champion Mark Symes just missed his own M55 UK 1500m record of 4:17.45 with 4:19.14.
Blackheath and Bromley Harrier Godsell improved Caroline Powell’s W70 100m record of 15.40 with a 15.34/0.1 at her local track in Bromley on July 14. Godsell, the reigning Euro Masters indoor 60m and 200m champion, had run a 15.04 100m at the Scottish Masters Championships in Ayr earlier in the month but had been denied a record by the narrowly over the limit 2.3m/sec tailwind.
Another record-breaking sprinter was Lisa Boland who won a Southern League B race at Harrow on July 13 with a PB 12.16 in perfect wind conditions of 2.0m/sec. The time gave Boland, a double medallist in the world masters indoor championships in Toruń in 2023, a UK W40 mark bettering Helen Raffalli’s 12.22 set in last year’s World Masters Championships in Sweden.
The 1986 Commonwealth pole vault champion and 1988 Olympian Andy Ashurst is still going strong and the World masters indoor silver medalist cleared a British M60 outdoor record of 3.81m at a National League meeting at Liverpool on July 5.
One record missed from earlier notified performances was Ian Barnes M90 mile mark of 11:09.38 at Jarrow on June 18. He already held the M85 record of 8:10.40 in 2020.
Elms competed in a Southern League between her 5000m and 3000m records at Eltham on July 13 winning the 3000m and B 800m but it was her third race of the day in stifling conditions that was most notable as her 5:02.83 was just five seconds outside her world record and she ran easily over the first half.
Though it wasn’t a record the most notable men’s effort came from double world masters medallist Chris Loudon who went top of the M40 1500m rankings with a solo 3:59.51 which gave him a 100m victory and a lifetime PB.
Elms is currently Britain’s most prolific record-setter holding 27 UK outdoor, indoor and road marks though she has lost a few records in recent years to younger athletes.
She uniquely holds every 1500m and mile outdoor mark through the W45, W50, W55 and W60 age groups though in Watford last week Kirstie Booth came within a few seconds of Elms’ 15 year-old W45 mark of 4:31.87 with 4:34.23.
Elms is among the 300-plus entries for the London Masters International at Lee Valley this weekend on July 26 and 27.
It is part of European Masters’ League and the inaugural event in Britain and contains athletes from around the world but mostly it is the top Brits who are in action.
Other recent record setters include Boland and Godsell and W60 Kirstin King and M55 Darren Scott in the 100m and 200m, hurdlers W75 Emily McMahon and M70 Ian Broadhurst and pentathlete record-setting sisters W55 Julia Machin and W50 Diana Norman.
W75 record-breaker Moira West is entered for the 100m while shot record-holder Paula Williams is entered in the hurdles, 100m and shot.
M85 high jumper Roger Bruck and W60 jumper Jo Willouughby and W65 Carole Filer are other field record holders entered.
Multiple record-holder W60 Virginia Mitchell is entered at 400m while other noteworthy entries include in the hurdles multi world champs senior finalist Will Sharman in the M40 and M45 record-setter Mensah Elliott and multi W65 champion Jane Horder.
Middle distance standouts include record-holders M50 Kojo Kyereme, M60 Rob McHarg and W45 Zoe Doyle.
