Brooks Offers Track Master Class

The traditional adage contends that ‘life begins at 40’, but that might need revising for one case in point, as Karen Brooks sought to exemplify at the recent Midland Masters Track & Field Championships, held last Sunday at Leicester’s Saffron Lane Stadium.
The Harborough AC stalwart recently transcended to the Female Vet50 ranks, and has been rewriting both Personal Bests and Club Records with unerring regularity; her performances belying the change of age category, and setting a very high standard for those massed in the Club’s Senior ranks. Brooks has already written her name into the Club’s archives, holding no less than eight of the Vet40 record marks, and has recently lowered both the 1500m and 3000m times for the Vet50 section. As if to underline this dominance, Brooks took to the track for the Masters Championships in both the 1500m and 5000m – on the same day – returning with two Gold medals around her neck after superb runs in both events, topped off with a further Club Record in the latter of the two – 20:04.6! Her time of 5:35.6 for the earlier event was just shy of her own best mark, but still saw her produce a clear, resolute display of front-running that took her well clear of the chasing pack. Brooks’ training partner and coach – Rick Brown – paid due regard to her performance, exalting: “Karen has trained very hard since coming back from her injury of last year, and the results she’s now seeing are a reflection of that hard work and endeavour. She’s a very gutsy runner, and thoroughly deserves her success!”
Brown himself came away from the Championships with a bronze medal from the Male Vet55 5000m race – proving that the training and motivation is clearly paying dividends on both sides – while Chris Holliday continued his impressive season with Silver in the Male Vet40 100m, in a time of 13.6 seconds.
Earlier in the week, seven Club members continued their pursuit of East Midlands Grand Prix Series glory, in the guise of the Banbury 5 mile race – the sixth race in that Series. It proved to be a fruitful day in that chase, with Will Clapp taking first place in the Men’s Vet40 group, with seventh place overall, and a time of 27:52. Matt Driver maintained his excellent sequence in the Men’s Under20 category, with third place in 31:58, while Dave Oram proved, once again, that age is not getting the better of him with fourth position in the Men’s Vet65 classification. There was also a road race debut for Steve Hillam, who followed up on his first Club track outing of just two days earlier with a good run of 35:19.
Full Results:
7th Will Clapp 27:52 (1st MV40)
44th Ady King 30:27
45th Richard Bufton 30:30
66th Matt Driver 31:58 (3rd MU20)
119th Steve Hillam 35:19
193rd David Ward 39:15
267th Dave Oram 46:49 (4th MV65)

Elsewhere, four HAC runners took the roads again for the second in the series of the Leicester Road Running League’s summer version. From a field of 485 finishers, there were top-100 places for Lazloe Boden, Ady King, and Adam Brooks, while Jackie King continued her tremendous improvement with a time of 53:43.
Full Results:
21st Lazloe Boden 36:04
62nd Ady King 39:04
65th Adam Brooks 39:11
360th Jackie King 53:43

13/06/2010