A round-up of World Masters Championships action in France

As the World Masters Championships entered the final few days, Britain had a very successful time in the 1500m events on Friday.

The UK won four gold medals and eight other medals too on an exciting afternoon of racing in Lyon.

David Heath, Anthony Whiteman and Louise Rudd completed 800/1500m doubles with assured runs while Angela Copson won her fifth gold medal of the Championships. She has won four individual golds and a team gold at cross-country.

Heath destroyed the opposition from the off and the M50 was quicker than both the M35 and M45 winners.

A 63 first lap gave him a big lead and he continued to operate at world record pace through 800m in 2:06 despite very windy conditions and his lead soon stretched to over 10 seconds. It was only in the last lap he slowed.

The French-based Blackheath and Bromley Harrier s time of 4:01.54 was announced as a world record but he does have an unratified sub-4 from earlier in the summer.

His winning margin was over 14 seconds and Mike Trees finished well to snatch bronze.

Whiteman, pictured above with his mum – Ann Gray – who finished fifth in the W70 1500m, only hit the front at the bell in the M40 race and at that stage he was 13 seconds slower than Heath s time. However, a sub-53 last lap, even with a bit of easing and celebrating prematurely, meant his time was slightly quicker than his compatriot!

The ferocity of his kick opened up a six second gap on the last lap and a gasp from the crowd. His time was 4:00.97.

Dean Richardson made a well-timed late run to snatch bronze in 4:06.94.

W40 Rudd s margin was less decisive but just as well executed. She pushed on mid-race to open up a gap and then in an exciting last lap held off the challenge of fast-finishing American Jennifer St Jean.

She won in 4:36.70 to the American s 4:37.08.

Copson had missed the W65 800m, which was won by fellow Brit and rival Ros Tabor. Copson had failed to beat Tabor in their previous five meetings at 1500m or lower and Tabor had beaten her in European Indoor Championship 1500m in the winter.

Copson herself though had recently broken Tabor s mile world record and had beaten her in the cross-country in Lyon and then won the 5000m and 10,000m and she set off at world record pace.

The first lap was a furious 82 seconds which was on schedule to break the record by over 20 seconds but Tabor was still in touch. The second lap was significantly slower and at the bell, Tabor was closing up and looking the most likely winner. Copson though kicked strongly on the last lap and won easily by 12 seconds in 5:32.99 with Tabor making it the only British one-two of the night.

Earlier in the day, Tabor had qualified for the 400m final, but felt it hadn t affected her.

There were also two medals in the W35 1500m, comfortably won by Spain s Susan Arrua in 4:41.24. Jo Locker led for most of the race but suddenly dropped to fourth on the final bend and looked destined to miss out despite a brave run in the gusty conditions.

Her team-mates Rachael Burns, who had followed her closely all the way, and Zoe Doyle, who had come from 20 metres back at halfway, looked to be fighting for silver when Doyle paid for her long kick and her legs gave way and she fell to the ground near the line and was repassed by Locker.

Burns ran 4:43.45, Locker 4:44.60 and Doyle 4:48.11.

Pete Giles finished very well to take M70 silver in 5:16.22 while Dave Cowlishaw was third in the M45 race in 4:13.11 and Barry Swindells third in the M75 1500m in 5:57.39.

There were some dramatic other races with M35s Artur Kern of Poland and Alberto Sabado of Spain sharing the winning time of 4:02.66, which was later confirmed to the thousandth of a second to 4:02.652.

At first it appeared the M65 race was going to be similarly close as France s Alain Aquero and Italy s Giovanni Finielli were both given times of 4:52.08. It was an exciting controversial finish with Aquero ahead but moving out to prevent his opponent passing and then only beating him because he himself fell over the line. The result was initially announced as a French win but a closer inspection of the finish saw Aquero disqualified.

In other events Mark Wiseman won silver in the M45 shot with a 14.09m effort.

A round-up of the first few days of action can be found here, while further results, including Anthony Whiteman s 800m win, can be found in a report here. There are details of world record-breaking performance by Glyn Sutton and Caroline Powell in a round-up report here. The event takes place from August 4-16

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