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World Masters Championships - Torun

Thursday 6th April 2023

Four Phoenix athletes travelled out to Poland last week (27 March to 1st April) for the Master World Indoor Championships. All four athletes report back that the city of Toruń is a UNESCO-protected medieval city and both fascinating and gorgeous – plus the indoor track is absolutely superb.  As the name indicates, the world’s best really were competing in all ages from 35 to the over 90s. 

In a club of so many fine Half Marathoners, Gary and Sibel wonderfully flew the Phoenix (and GB) flag in their Half Marathon event.  With none of the support of a Brighton HM, and with some wind and a hill to contend with, it is fabulous to report that not only did Sibel achieve a new PB of 1:24:34 but that she won both a bronze medal in the V45 individual and a silver medal in the women’s team V45.  Fantastic.  Gary White ran a super 1:28:56 which was well under his target of 1’32 (to get automatic entry into the New York marathon). 

On the indoor track, Adrian Haines ran the 400m, 800m & 1500m. Phil Grabsky the 800m & 1500m 

Multiple world records were broken during the championships and across the board, the standards were extremely high.  Adrian is among the world's elite in his 55-59 category and made the finals in both 800m & 1500m.  The 800m saw the world record broken with a 2:06:10, and Adrian was only 2 seconds behind the winner.  No-one who then saw his grit two days later in the 1500m final will have failed to have been impressed either. He really is among the finest Phoenix runners and he is full of praise for not only the Phoenix coaching but the ethos and friendliness of the club as a whole. 

Phil – who is looking forward in June to getting out of this highly competitive 55-59 age bracket – ranked a creditable 27th and 34th overall – and loved every minute of the event (except maybe the last 400m of both races!). 

The outdoor season starts now – with the British Outdoors Masters in Derby and European Outdoors Masters in Pescara, Italy – both in September – to now work towards.  Let’s get plenty of Phoenix runners out to both.  (If anyone wants more information, contact Phil at pgrabsky@seventh-art.com).