Fast performances by Helen Godsell and Steve Peters at the England Masters Inter-Area match

Stephen Peters and Helen Godsell were in record-breaking form in York at the England Masters Inter Area where teams from Wales and Scotland also competed on Sunday (Aug 17).

Godsell started her day with a 15.05/1.0 UK W70 100m record which gave her a near two second victory.

She followed that with a three second victory over 200m in 31.81/-1.8 with a hefty headwind costing her a chance of nearing the European record as the wind direction changed later in the afternoon.

Peters, now aged 72, and easily Britain's greatest master sprinter of all time as well as a world-famous psychologist, set his record in the M70 100m with a 12.75/1.7 clocking. This gave him a five metre win over John Browne and improved on Glen Sutton's 10-year-old 12.79.

Peters also won the 200m in 26.26 which was down on his 26.03 record from his fixture last year with 400m and 300m hurdles World champion Ian Broadhurst chasing him home in second in 27.23.

M65 John Wright won the M60 400m in 56.51 ahead of World masters indoor bronze medalist Wole Odele's 57.75 which tops the younger W60 age group rankings.

Some checking Power of 10 thought Wright had smashed the British record as it listed his 58.1 as the British best.

However, last year when winning the World Masters gold in Gothenburg in an European record 56.22 (breaking legend Guido Mueller's 20 year-old 57.63) Power of 10's parameters decided was too fast to be true and ignored it in their age-group rankings.

Wright had also won 200m gold in Sweden in 25.61 but here in Derby, with the 400m already in his legs, he sped to a sensational 24.85/0.8 though the trackside clock initially suggested he had run faster than Peters' European and UK best of 24.84 which is clearly on borrowed time.

In age-graded terms, beating Peters' 12.75 at 72 and Wright's 24.85 at 66, the day's top performance came from multiple record breaker Clare Elms in the 3000m.

She had gone into the meet hoping to attack her own 1500m world record but unlike last year the organisers split the W35 and W50 races despite only 13 runners in total in the two races. Therefore, she lost the opportunity to follow faster younger runners so settled for a tactical race just stretching out in the last 400m ahead of Kate Ramsey's UK W55 lead of 5:12.27. Elms ran 5:05.33 which is still significantly quicker than any other British W60 has ever achieved.

Elms' better performance though came in the 3000m which this time was combined and had 19 runners from the W35 to W60 categories.

Content to ease through the first half behind W35 winner Robyn Naylor, the W60 picked up the second half to run a relaxed 10:42.26, a time quicker than her world indoor record and it would have been a British record this time last year.

At 61 she became the oldest ever overall winner of an W35 event at the Inter Area though she was competing in the W50 age group.

Naylor, 27 years her junior, ran a PB 10:55.47 while Ramsey set a UK W55 lead of 11:16.14.

The winner of the W60 category was W65 Monica Williamson in 12:08.51 who also won the W60 1500m in 5:43.42.

The second W65 in the 3000m could actually boast the race's fastest PB as former senior British champion Jill Harrison ran 9:12.46 exactly 40 years ago and here ran 12:38.88. Ramsey's PB of 9:16.24 was set 32 years ago.

Another multiple world record breaker Sarah Roberts won the W70 1500m easily in 6:13.01 but the W75 was out-kicked in the 800m by recent W70 mile world record breaker Anna Garnier's 3:05.98.

Elms wasn't the only winner well out of her age.

Melanie Peddle, 57, a former Euro Masters medallist and British record-holder, not only headed all the women home in the 2000m walk, she also beat all the men in a time of 10:43.80.

Lisa Thomas who holds the British W50 and W55 records in the steeplechase, showed her impressive flat speed by winning the W60 200m in 30.01/2.0, 400m in 68.26 and 800m in 2:41.73 despite a hamstring problem. She was also third in the 1500m and runs her first steeplechase as a W60 next weekend in Nuneaton.

Paula Williams won the W50 shot with a near UK record 13.91m just two centimetres down on her world masters winning mark set in Sweden last  year.

She also won the 80 metre hurdles (13.68), discus (27.59m) and javelin (31.15m) and was second in the 100m.

Another impressive all-round winner was W35 heptathlete Jo Rowland who gained firsts in the W35 hurdles (12.71), long jump (5.08m), shot (12.62m) and javelin (35.20m) as well finishing second in the discus and third in the 400m.

M50 Grant Stirling won the long and triple jumps and pole vault but also picked up points in the 100m hurdles, high jump, discus, shot and javelin!

Susan Frisby won the W60 80m hurdles by over four seconds in 13.68 to go second all-time in the W65 age group.

Darren Scott won the M50 200m in 23.80/0.8 to go top of the UK W55 rankings.

Lisa Boland was close to her recent W40 100m record with a 12.26/1.3 W35 win and she also won the 200m in 25.36/1.1.

M65 Allan Leiper won the M60 shot with 13.54m but World Masters M65 champion from Florida and Gothenburg John Moreland got the better of the M60 discus competition with a 46.21m throw.

Tim Carter won the M70 long jump in an UK outdoor legal lead of 4.08m.

World Masters Indoor M40 800m champion Keith Hutchinson gained a 53.43/2:03.36 M35 400m and 800m double.

World Masters M40 weight pentathlon champion James Taylor won the M35 shot (14.29m), discus (47.83m) and hammer (44.26m).

Roy Head, who ran 1:59.3 aged 16 44 years ago won the M60 800m with a fast finish in a vets PB of 2:19.76.

Northern Masters were clear winners of the men's event with 366 points while Midland Masters reversed the order in the women's but the North won overall.

TEAM

Men: 1 North 366; 2 Midlands 328; 3 Eastern 252; 4 North East 236; 5 Wales 223; 6 Vets AC 221; 7 Scotland 227; 8 South 163; 9 South West 48

Women: 1 Midlands 360; 2 North 347; 3 Vets AC 250; 4 South 246; 5 East 235; 6 Wales 222; 7 Scotland 91; 8 South West 57

Age-Graded - performances over 95%

1 Elms (61) 3000m 10:42.26. 97.15%
2 Peters (72) 100m 12.75. 96.98%
3 Wright (66) 200m 24.85. 96.77%
4 Elms (61) 1500m 5:05.33. 95.67%
5 Peters (72) 200m 26.26. 95.43%
6 Wright (66) 400m 56.51. 95.29%