First and second claim Bedford and County Masters Athletes were in action on Sunday 26th February representing Eastern Masters in the Masters Inter-Area Championship where the various regions of England (East, Midlands, London, Southern , South West, North etc) compete against Wales and Scotland.
In a very high standard competition that saw British age group records broken, the Eastern Masters' Team - managed by Bedford's Graeme Packman - was very successful winning the men's competition out of 9 teams, and coming close runners up in the Ladies' Competition such that they won the overall combined competition trophy too.
Nine Bedford athletes were in action on behalf of the EMAC team, setting a number of club records along the way.
The men's team's performances were lead by Tenny James with third in the M60 200m in 27.4 secs and third again in the M60 400m in a new club M65 record of 62.1 secs. Tenny was ably supported by Peter Benedickter in the M50 400m where he was third in 58.32 secs. Simon Eastwood was third in the M50 Pole Vault with a vault of 2.80m.
Amongst Bedford's second claim Masters athletes Richard Phelan won the M60 High Jump with 1.33m and was second in the M60 Long Jump with 4.23m, losing only on countback. Bob Kingman was second in the M35 Pole Vault, again losing on countback, with a vault of 3.40m - even though he has just entered the higher M50 age group. Simon Coombes was second in the M50 1500m in 4.34.56 and second again in the M50 3000m in 9.42.74. Phil Bowers was third in the M50 Triple Jump with 9.70m and equal fourth in the M50 High Jump in 1.40m.
In the Ladies team- Emma Coombes set a W40 club indoor record in the W35 400m in 74.95 seconds. And the star of the EMAC ladies team was Ellie Garraway who won the W50 800m in a club W50 record of 2:29.38 and the W50 1500m in a club W50 record of 5:11.87. Ellie also came fifth in the W50 Long Jump with 2.98m ensuring that EMAC finished in second place in the Ladies' competition. Ellie was the highest points scorer in the EMAC team and contributed two of EMAC's four individual wins in the Ladies competition.
