Coverage from the first edition of this event where veteran British athletes rubbed shoulders with overseas competitors in north London
The inaugural London Masters International last weekend (July 26-27) was well supported by Britain’s top masters athletes and was boosted by overseas competitors at a breezy Lee Valley, Steve Smythe reports.
While her sister Diana Norman, the W40 and W45 world masters pentathlon record-holder, was unable to compete, Julia Machin added the W55 world pentathlon mark to her remarkable family successes.
Machin’s score of 4752 bettered Bajeat’s world record of 4436 set in May by over 300 points. She also bettered Susan Frisby’s British record score of 3839 from 2017 by over 900 points.
The elder Bennett sister, who finished eighth in the 1998 European Indoor Championships pentathlon, probably focuses more on coaching than competing these days.
After a steady start of a 13.56 80m hurdles left slightly her down on both the respective world and British marks of France’s Petra Bajeat (13.26) and UK’s Susan Frisby (13.29) she went well ahead of their scores in the high jump.
Machin, who boasts a 1.92m PB set in 1990, produced a 1.62m leap to improve her own world W55 high jump mark.
A 11.49m shot pulled her further clear of both records and then she produced a 4.99m UK record in the long jump and while a 2:57.81 800m lost ground it was enough for a record score.
W35 Jo Rowland, a former English senior heptathlon champion who competed for Britain in the European Cup combined events, also impressed.
She put together marks of 16.03 in the 100m hurdles, 1.53m in the high jump, 13.65m in the shot, 5.33m in the long jump and 2:23.24 in the 800m to easily take the overall event.
Another top coach now, Christine Harrison-Bloomfield, who ran for Britain as a senior in the 1993 world indoor and outdoor championships, sped to a British W55 100m record of 13.38 (-0.1).
European indoor champion Helen Godsell improved her W70 100m record to 15.23 (-0.1) and then improved it to 15.09 (1.0) in the second round of races.
World masters champion Ian Broadhurst improved his UK M70 400m record to 63.13. He also came close to his 300m hurdles record with 48.37.
Emily McMahon improved her UK W75 200m hurdles to 40.41, which is also a European record.
Multiple world championships senior finalist Will Sharman impressed with first a 14.69 (-1.3) 110m hurdles…
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