Sunday 4^th September saw the final of the Eastern Masters League take place at Bedford with a full programme of events for Men and Women, covering the ages of 35 to over 70.

Injuries and availability for Bedford made the task of wrestling the trophy from Milton Keynes AC difficult, but with athletes doubling and trebling up and more, and some racing out of age group, the overall result was in doubt right up to the final relays.

Great efforts throughout the day resulted in two M50 league records for Simon Coombes (2:11.76 for 800m and 4:24.00 in the 1500m), and to round off the day Dave Folgate M70 with a leap of 8.87m in the triple jump won the award for Best Field Performance (81.8% Age related), and Andrew Leach M55 took the Best Track Performance (92.4% Age related) with his 9:42.17 in the 3000m.

One of the notable performances of the day was in the 2k walk where Adam Hills and John Borgas repeated the age group triumphs from 2021.

Across the field programme Bedford athletes managed to cover all the events.  Well done to Simon Eastwood M50, Graeme Packman M60, James Danobrega M45, Gavin Fordham M40, and Roy Chambers M35 in the throwing events, and James, Gavin & Simon, Philip Bowers M50, Richard Phelan M60, Dave Folgate M70, who combined to cover all the vaults & jumps.

On the track Pete Webster, Steve Bass, Richard Phelan and Jim Keech covered admirably in the sprints, supporting the middle distance runners Ewan Wilson, who ran out of age group all afternoon, Simon Coombes, Charlie Palmer and Andrew Leach who all took either first or second place in their events. 

Special note should be made of the efforts of John Borgas M75, who not only took first place in the M60 2K walk, but also covered the M60 800m and 3000m at short notice, and those points together with Jim Keech’s M50 hammer result meant that Bedford secured the silver medal place for the second consecutive year in a close ran competition.

FINAL RESULTS