Ilford AC's
super veteran John Batchelor
continues to dominate the Track
veteran scene with two
outstanding performances this
week. John attended the
Battersea Park track on Thursday
evening to compete in the Vets
AC 10000 metres. The field was
split into 2 races with the
M40-59 going off first with John
competing in the following M60+
race . Gareth Jones, the BMAF
M60 champion, ran the first race
as he had to get back to
Southampton, and placed 4th in
37:23. That effectively took the
opposition out of the later
race, which John effectively ran
as a time-trial lapping almost
at constant speed except for the
first and last laps. John's
final time of 38:27 was 33 sec
faster than the 2005 British
best and 2:05 faster than the
BMAF winning time this year.
John was
back on the track on Sunday
afternoon where he placed 4th in
St Mary's College Masters & Open
3000m at Twickenham in an
incredible time of 10:34.3. This
has now been submitted as a UK
M65 best and must surely rank as
one of the best veteran
performances of the year. John
now looks forward to the BMAF
10K at Swansea on 24th Sept,
where he hopes to raise his game
and take on arch-rival Graham
Patton who defeted him by 4
minutes in the BMAF Cross
country 4 years ago, and has run
37:20 this year.
