Midland Masters Athletic Club
BMAF
Special Announcement
I am very pleased to announce that David Oxland has accepted the MMAC Committee’s invitation for him to be our President Elect for 2013/2014. David will take on the prestigious role of President of MMAC at the AGM in April 2014.
I reproduce below David’s profile on the Power of 10 ….
Started serious running in 2003 when I joined a club for the first time. 2003 to 2005 I developed as a local road and cross country runner, winning the Notts AAAs summer league over 50s Gold medal in 2005. By chance I entered a track time trial for 1500 metres in 2006 and was amazed to comfortably beat 5 minutes so I did 6 weeks training and entered the BMAF championships and squeezed a bronze medal in the 1500m in the Summer of 2006 when I was just 55. My five years as an M55 have been 
good years with 7 individual international medals including two at Ghent in the European Veterans Indoor championships in March 2011 when I was only two months short of 60. The new age band started well with a good time in the 10,000m track British Masters championship, in fact a lifetime PB at that distance and another comfortable win and also a course record for M60 at Horwich in the BMAF 5K road championships. Eventually a tally of 6 Golds at British Masters events in 2011. Best experiences in 2011 were two Golds at Sacramento in the World Masters Athletics Championships, including a narrow win against the great Nolan Shaheed at 5000m and also last year a British record outdoors at 3000m. However each year there is “young blood” entering the age band and it will be harder this year! 2012 has started quite well ,despite a few problems, with the highlight by a very long way being a very close tussle with the great Nick Rose at 3000m at the British Masters Indoors Championships. Nick is a truly great sportsman. The rest of 2012 went OK in terms of races although performances were well down on the previous year. 2013 on the other hand started well with an unexpected good time in the 1500m indoors at Cardiff which gave me hope that I might turn the clock back 5 years and run a World Record. The opportunity came at the British Masters Indoor championships at Lee Valley when none other than Mike Hager and Dave Butler both put their names down for this race. It was only a very fast kick finish over 120 metres which won me this race and shaved a whole second off the existing 4 year old record.
Thanks to Tom Phillips for providing the photo of the finish of this race.
Related articles
- British Masters Champs – 14/15 September (rscac.co.uk)
10k Track Run – Member Poll
Please go to the “10k Track Run Poll” page or click http://tinyurl.com/moefdks to fill in our very important Poll.
We are already looking at our Championships Track programme for next year and were contemplating re-introducing a 10,000m. However, with a congested fixture list, this is not a simple task. Would we get support for this? Would athletes double up with the 5000m? Would it be a disaster for entering other events on the day? How can we get more members to enter a 10,000m track? This is becoming a rare event on the track, so why didn’t more members support it this year?
To help us answer at least a couple of these questions it would be a great help if members completed the Poll.
The Poll closes on the 1st October 2013
BMAF 5k Championships 2013
These championships took place yesterday, 16th June, at Horwich. A dedicated race just for these 
championships meant a small but very experienced field. MMAC were very well represented with 26 athletes finishing, 17 men and 9 women out of the 152 finishers.
Congratulations must go to our Gold Medalists in the various individual age categories, 5 in total, as follows:-
M40 Mark Johnson; M45 David Smith; M60 Mike Hager; M80 Brian Campbell
W60 Christine Kilkenny
Full Results … http://tinyurl.com/msqshqd
In the team awards, MMAC came away with a total of 6 team medals, an excellent performance.
MEN
1st M35-44 team: Mark Johnson 1; Mark Dalkins 5; Dean Richardson 6
3rd M45-54 team: David Smith 1; Russell Parkin 14; Robert Fox 17
1st M55-64 team: Mike Hager 1; David Oxland 2; Dave Hollins 3
2nd M65-74 team: Mick Smedley 4; Roger Wilson 9; Alex Davidson-Elliott 16
WOMEN
2nd W35-44 ‘A’ team: Ruth Watchorn-Rice 4; Michelle Buckle 5; Steph Spencer 8
3rd W35-44 ‘B’ team: Wendy Swift 9; Debbie Hope 10; Deborah Blakeman 11
Full Team and Age Category Results … http://tinyurl.com/m63ftlx
Final Reminder – MMAC Track & Field Championships
MMAC Track & Field Championships, 9th June 2013, Nuneaton
This is the final reminder to MMAC members that the closing date for the online entries to our 2013 Track
& Field Championships is strictly next Wednesday, 22nd May.
Please go to http://areg247.co.uk where you can logon and enter our event. If you have entered BMAF events previously then simply logon using your normal username and password.
For the members new to the BMAF online system, then you will need to register, email me for your username and temporary password first. BUT do this right away
The closing date for paper entries is strictly Saturday, 25th May.
Related articles
- MMAC Track & Field Championships – Important News (midlandmasters.com)
MMAC Track & Field Championships – Important News
Track & Field Championships, 9th June 2013
Full details of our championships can be found on our dedicated page at http://tinyurl.com/a67ypmw
The important news is that you can now enter them online at http://areg247.co.uk
For those members who have already used the BMAF Online system all you need to do is login, look for events and choose our championships.
For the members new to the BMAF online system, then you will need to register, email me for your username and temporary password first.
Just follow the instructions as you go along. Comprehensive instructions on how to register are given on this link http://tinyurl.com/czlq8xq The system should now allow entry of 5 digit membership numbers so please make sure you use your correct membership number.
It is likely that next year we will use an online entry in preference to paper entries, so please register now, and you will be set up to pay both your yearly subscriptions and some of our events.
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
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)
Perfect Christmas Present ….
Received in my Inbox this morning: –
Dear Secretary,
Re: Book titled My Brother Jeffrey’s Favourite Little Books featuring Who Ate All The Paella? Stories from the World masters Athletics Champs 2005.
I’ve been down to my last 100 or so copies for a few years now, so have decided to try and safely dispose of them to the good homes of new Masters or those who missed out first time round. The deal is £4.50 for one, £3.50 every other copy inc. p&p and for every copy sold I will re-imburse your association with £1 per copy for your help. Please note that any money is only going towards off-setting the original print costs (it wasn’t half as cheap then as now!)
All I need from prospective buyers is cheque payable to Kevin Archer, their contact details, any dedication they want in the book and confirmation of their association so you get re-imbursed.
My contact details are:-
Kevin Archer 3 Lower Saint Edmund Street Weymouth Dorset DT4 8AJ Tel: 01305 830096 evenings, 07453698759 day, email kevin_archer45@hotmail.com. That’s kevin (underscore) archer.
About the book. An attempt at humour with the back drop of the World Masters Athletics Champs. I got injured there so started writing stories about the characters and just added all the corny jokes that came to mind, but funnily enough not the one about the Chiropodist who only ever ate corn flakes for breakfast! Characters from all the Associations appear in one guise or another, so your area is represented, including a true but funny piece on the birth and death of Antrim Harriers contributed by Terry Eakin. The original press and peer reviews in the book are so good I could have written them myself!
So don’t miss out on possibly the best stocking filler since………(buy the book to reveal!)
Midland Masters Athletic Club 