British Masters 5km Road Championships.

The British Masters (BMAF) 5km Road Championships were held for the second year running in Battersea Park.
For many years it had been an annual championship in Horwich, Lancashire but now looks like it has found a new home in London.

This was one of the few BMAF Championships that Southampton AC had not competed in before and on a perfect December morning with not a breath of wind every Southampton AC athlete came home with a medal.

Sarah Winstone was the days star performer storming to victory in the Women’s Race thus taking the W35 title by 26secs with a time of 17:04.
- Sarah said ‘it was disappointing not to run a bit faster and run another sub 17 minutes’ a time in which her pb is on this very course, 16:49.
Along with Sarah Kingston who ran superbly for her fastest 5km & for a few years in 18:25 for 10th (4th W35) - and Lucy Short running well after a long successful track season finishing in 19:39 for 21st (8th W35) it was enough to win Team Silver behind Tonbridge.

There were more medals to come in the Vets Men’s race as Peter Costley led the charge for the M55 team as he produced his fastest 5km since 2021 smashing the sub 20 barrier with 19:40 in 15th place.
Close behind and good packing from Jon Grainger in 18th, 19:49 and Scott Augur 20th, 20:47 saw them also win Team Silver.

The M35 category were led home by Matt Risden finishing 7th overall (4th M35) in 15:56.
Matt said ‘I was disappointed not to go faster but unfortunately got isolated running most of the race on my own’ chasing his pb of 15:44.
Incidentally this performance was his second fastest time ever on the road.
Andrew Lewis was next home 9th in the M40 category with 16:57 (just shy of his fastest ever time on the road) and also disappointed not to run faster but such is the standard Matt and Andrew are setting themselves these days, both in the form of their lives, todays times would have been personal bests only a few months ago and on reflection I’m sure will be pleased with their performances.
Andy Morgan-Lee dropped down in age category with Matt & Andrew to make up an M35 team finishing in 19:09 (15th M50) and was enough to sneak the Bronze medals behind Guernsey & Guildford respectively.