Maureen Noel racewalks to gold at European Masters

Racewalking Life Member Maureen Noel made the most of being in a new age-group at September’s European Masters Championships, collecting a gold and silver medal in Pescara, Italy. Maureen turned 60 a month before the meeting took place.

Maureen took part if the 10km race walk on September 26 and had a good race, only missing out on gold by 13 seconds. She covered the distance in 65 minutes and 14 seconds.

Maureen was happy taking silver behind Swiss competitor Dora Briere, but set her sights on revenge in the 20km just four days later. Her determination took her over the line first, beating Dora by 30 seconds to claim her first international Masters' title. Maureen covered the distance in 2 hours 16 minutes and 16 seconds.

In both races Maureen had to cope with not being sure who was in her age-group, as all of the women walkers from age 35 upwards raced together. You need to be pretty close to someone to be able to see the age-group printed in the corner of the numbers!

Congratulations to Maureen on her successes.

Maureen Noel (1535) with her international teammates