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 followed in better conditions by a swift 14.34 (2.0) to go close to world masters champion Mensah Elliott's UK record of 14.26. Elliott, who is an M45 now, failed to finish his first race against Sharman and withdrew from the second.

Pick of the 100m hurdlers was Barrie Marsden who ran a M60 UK leading 15.44 just ahead of British age-group record-holder Neil Tunstall (15.54).

Darren Scott, a multiple record breaker in the sprints, showed good form in the field with a UK lead in the M55 high jump with a Scottish record 1.63m leap.

He also set a UK M55 lead in the 100m with a 11.88 (0.1) clocking.

In the shot there was a M65 stadium record for Allan Leiper, whose 13.56m defeated Michael Hausler by a single centimetre.

Tony Richards set a M75 stadium record of 10.72m.

Claire Cameron's 9.22m went top of the UK W65 rankings.

In the hammer W35 Rachel Wilcockson (53.11m), M55 Gareth Cook (53.06m), W45 Andrea Jenkins (43.43m), W50 Stacey Gonzalez (38.10m) came close to their UK age-group leads.

W60 Janet Smith set a stadium record 37.79m.

M60 World Indoor 1500m record-holder Rob McHarg was less than impressed that much younger athletes refused to set the pace on a windy afternoon and he ended up leading for much of the race before finishing fifth overall in 4:32.24 which was a stadium record.

Pick of the women's 1500m performances came from W65 Monica Williamson, whose 5:33.10 was just three seconds down on Nancy Hitchmough's British record and took a minute off the stadium record.

W35 Harriet Slade won the overall women's 1500m (4:53.66) and 3000m (10:26.36) in PB times.

World W45 champion Zoe Doyle, who also ran 200m and 400m at this meeting, won the 800m easily in 2:19.23. Other stadium records were set in the same race by W50 and reigning European champion Nikki Sturzaker (2:31.79), W60 Clare Elms (2:31.94) and W55 Kate Ramsey (2:38.69).

Multiple world champion Elms, who took over half a minute off of the stadium record, had had a busy week. She took six seconds off of her W60 world mile record on Wednesday and then on Saturday missed her 1500m world record by three seconds before missing her UK outdoor 800m record by a couple of seconds here on the Sunday.

Spanish M45 Francesc Bonfill was the pick of the 400m runners with a 51.98 clocking.

Multiple world and European champion Virginia Mitchell was fastest W60 in the 400m with 67.54.

Netherlands' M50 Paul de Graauw was the pick of the male pentathletes with a score of 3284.

M35 Paul Ogun's 6.75m headed the long jumpers but there was an useful 3.36m stadium record for M80 sprint medallist Allan Long.

Despite the high quality standards in most events, some late additional events to the programme did have smaller events but the overall standard of the event organised by OG Track club and masters athlete Kaspars Kazamak exceeded expectations.

Former multiple European masters champion Don Brown was the meeting director and was also an enthusiastic announcer and this could be the first of regular major masters meetings in London if supported better by the rank and file British masters club athletes.

It's worth noting while there have been numerous high profile senior events in the UK there hasn't been a major masters international track championships in Britain indoors or out since Gateshead's 1999 World Masters Championships 26 years ago!