Four Basingstoke athletes have enjoyed success at the 2022 World Masters Athletics Championships in Tampere, Finland, with father-and-son duo David and Jonathan Elderfield claiming five medals between them.

In the over-35 age group, Jonathan ran in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays, as well as competing in the individual 400m.

He ran the first leg of the shorter relay, which saw a very close finish between all three medallists with the British quartet winning the gold (44.14 seconds), marginally ahead of Spain (44.16) and Saudi Arabia (44.27).

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The following day, Jonathan then ran the second leg of the 4x400m, in which the British team won the bronze medal (3:29.68) behind Poland (3:22.29) and Spain (3:22.67).

In the individual 400m, Jonathan finished fourth in his heat to qualify for the semi-final, where he finished seventh.

Jonathan’s father David, a 400m specialist, competed in the over-65 age group. He broke the 60-second barrier to win bronze in the individual 400m (59.69) behind Spain’s Juan Rodriguez (58.54) and Australia’s Robert Mayston (58.57).

Further success came in the two relays, with David running the anchor leg to secure gold for Great Britain in both the 4x100m (53.28) and 4x400m (4:15.63).

Dave Awde, who competes for Basingstoke & Mid Hants Athletics Club as a second claim member, was particularly busy, competing in four events in the over-35 age group.

Dave successfully got through the preliminary rounds to qualify for the final in all three of his individual events, where he finished 5th in the 400m hurdles (55.84), 6th in the 110m hurdles (16.31) and 7th in the 400m (51.33).

Dave was also part of the gold-medal winning 4x100m relay team, along with Jonathan.

In the field, Neil Barton competed in the long and triple jump in the over-40 age group, setting personal bests in both.

In the long jump, Neil won the silver medal with a leap of 6.73m, finishing second behind Saudi Arabia’s Ahmed Fayez bin Marzouk (7.02m) and just 3cm ahead of Chile’s Cristobal Alonso (6.70m).

The triple jump brought mixed emotions for Neil – his jump of 13.57m smashed his season’s best by over half a metre but was just one agonising centimetre behind bronze medal winner Janne Harju of Finland (13.58m).

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Basingstoke & Mid Hants Athletics Club has also enjoyed success at club level, with the men’s team recently winning the Hampshire Veterans League.

BMHAC will now face winners of other regional veterans leagues in a final in September.

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