Tom Morris

Important Notice

The closing date for entries to the National Master Open Road Relays has been extended to midnight on Tuesday, 23 rd April 2013

London Marathon

The best of luck to all who I running the London Marathon. Remember those at Boston and make every stride count. Have a great time and enjoy the day.

MMAC Relays 2013 – Results

Results can now be viewed under the “Club Events” page, click on “MMAC Relays”, then “2013 Results”

EAMA Inter-Area Indoor Challenge

Results from the EAMA Inter-Area Indoor Challenge Match at Lee Valley on the 7th April are now on the EAMA website at http://tinyurl.com/cm6xjws

MMAC Open Relays

A final reminder that the closing date for entries in our Open Relays on the 14th April is the 6th April 2013. Entry form from the following short link http://tinyurl.com/cwroohf

MMAC Inter-Area Team Announced

The MMAC Team to compete in the Inter-Area Indoor Challenge Match on the 7th April has been announced today. There are a few gaps to be filled. Please contact Irene Nicholls on irenenn@aol.com if you can help. All details can be found on this website at http://tinyurl.com/bl92y2p

Here you will find a timetable and the rules of the competition as well as a PDF of the MMAC team.

STOP PRESS – World Records for Midland Masters

I am very pleased to report that at the BMAF Indoor Championships at Lee Valley, Day One, that two Midland Masters AC members achieved World records, subject to ratification. They are, David Oxland (M60) in the 1500m and Angela Copson. I have at this time no details of Angela’s performance but David ran 4:35.52 to achieve a very unexpected but pleasing victory. Congratulations to them both. I will leave it to David’s own words to describe his performance.

Last year M60 David Oxland’s successful clash with Nick Rose at 3000m was one of the highlights of the championship and so this year the prospect of the line-up in the 1500m, including Oxland, new M60 Dave Butler and the legendary Mike Hager was viewed with some excitement. In fact Oxland was on paper the under-dog this year having been well beaten by Butler and Hager in the cross country international at Belfast last November.

Butler lead from the gun and Oxland made no impression on a 10 metre lead for all of 7 laps by which time Hager was second but Oxland sprinted past both to achieve a new World Record in 4.35.52 taking exactly 1 second off the old one. With Butler comfortably inside the old world record as well at 4.36.04 and Hager inside the old British record, the trio would have taken the first three places in the M55 race as well.

Oxland said afterwards ” I had virtually given up with 150 metres to go when Mike overtook me but then I noticed that Dave was losing his fluency, after a superb bit of front running,and I decided to kick with 100 to go. I would have been happy just to beat these class runners and the World Record was an amazing bonus in my third year in this age group.”

PS: David went on to win a gold medal in the 800m on Day 2 being beaten by an Irish Guest runner whilst suffering from a cold made worse by the dry atmosphere in the arena.

Latest Committee News

At our committee meeting last night (27th February), two important decisions were made of interest to members.

Firstly, we co-opted Tony Porter as our Track & Field Team Manager responsible for the teams in the Midland Veterans Track & Field Team. Tony volunteered after my appeal for someone to come forward and more details will be available very soon.

Secondly, we unanimously agreed to go ahead and join the British Masters Athletic Federation online entry system. Once set up, members will be able to pay their subscriptions online and be able to update and amend their profile themselves. Eventually, probably gradually phased in, we will also be able to offer an online entry for our events. Integrating with the BMAF means that members will not be able to enter BMAF or International events without being a paid up member.

Maintaining this online database will drastically reduce the administration work involved with membership issues and will make handovers easier to succeeding officers.

Further details will be available soon.

Related articles

• Final Appeal for Team Manager (midlandmasters.com)

Final Appeal for Team Manager

This is one last appeal to all 1^st Claim Members of Midland Masters AC for one of you to come forward to act as a Team Manager for the Track & Field team that is due to compete in the Midland Veterans T&F League during the 2013 season. It is imperative that we have someone who can gather a team together and look after things at each event. Plenty of help will be given with regards which members are eligible to compete including those from Road Running Clubs who have registered as 1^st Claim to us for T&F only. League fees are quite expensive and MMAC just cannot justify to the rest of the membership our continued participation in this league if no one comes forward. I emailed ALL 1^st Claim Members on the 8^th December 2012 and on the 5^th February 2013 and only 50% bothered to access the email and so far no one has volunteered. I am no longer willing to spend my time on this and as a last resort I am re-producing my last email on this post below …

To: All 1st Claim Members on email and MMAC Committee

Further to Tony Crocker’s letter circulated to all 1^st Claim members (email only) on the 8^th December 2012. Only 50% were opened so I am hoping this email reaches more, please allow images, this is important.

This is the final appeal for a 1^st Claim Member to come forward to act as a Team Manager for our Track & Field team in the Midland Veterans T&F League.

Tony Crocker has resigned from this position and in future will compete in a combined Kidderminster & Stourbridge AC/Droitwich AC team in 2013. It is extremely important that we can fill this vacancy BEFORE THE 27^TH FEBRUARY 2013, which is the date of our next committee meeting and where a decision will be made whether to continue in the league.

Anyone interested will be allowed to have a full list of eligible athletes which will include the members from road running clubs who have been authorised to compete for MMAC as 1^st Claim Track & Field only. They will of course get any help to get started.

This is the last chance saloon I’m afraid. If no one comes forward then we will have to pull out of the league and we will have lost the competition that your Club should give you under our constitution.

Any who feels they can help, please contact me on mmac.sec@blueyonder.co.uk as soon as possible.

I look forward in anticipation.

Tom Morris – General & Membership Secretary

The Colin Simpson Memorial Handicap

Our annual handicap, now renamed The Colin Simpson Memorial Handicap in honour of our late Treasurer, takes place on the 3rd March within the Centurion Grand Prix Race Series. The closing date for entries is strictly the 21st February 2013. For all details and entry form, please go to http://tinyurl.com/6thbsz7 

Members who are already registered for the Centurion GP series MUST fill in and send off the entry form for the handicap with the reduced entry fee or the will NOT be included in the results.