Jodie Albrow lands three silvers at European Masters
It was a busy 8 days for Belgrave stalwart Jodie Albrow (W40) in Pescara (Italy) at the end of September as she embarked upon a Heptathlon, Long Jump, 4x100 relay, 80m hurdles and mixed 4x400 relay at the European Masters Championships.
Jodie started with a Heptathlon,. That’s seven events in two days!
Day one saw her perform well in the hurdles (12.56), despite some very soggy conditions, putting her in bronze position after the first event.
A solid performance in the High Jump (1.44m) & throwing close to her season’s best in Shot (9.58m) saw her move up into silver. Jodie then dominated her 200m heat (27.79) to leave her in the silver medal position overnight.
Day two was drier, but did not start as Jodie would have liked, with a mediocre long jump (4.76m) seeing her drop back into the bronze medal position, and a below par javelin (29.65m) failing to move her up the rankings with just 1 event left, every multi-eventer’s favourite (not) – the 800m.
Jodie ran courageously in the 800m to produce her fastest time in 10 years (2:29.91), creating a 10 second margin over a Dutch athlete to regain the silver position and take the European Silver medal.
Most people would take a well-earned rest after that, but the following morning she was back out there to compete in the Long Jump.
Producing a fairly consistent series of six jumps, it was pretty clear that she still had the heptathlon very much in her legs, but she finished with a jump of 4.75m and a well-deserved 5th place.
After just two days rest she began her campaign in the 80m hurdles; winning her heat in a huge personal best of 12.11 and securing her place in the final the following evening.
Running another great time in the final of 12.25, in what turned out to be a very hard-fought race with the German competitor, she secured herself another European Silver medal.
And so to the final event of her championships, the mixed 4x400 where it can only be described as an eclectic group of athletes came together for a “bit of fun”.
In an order that was dictated by the organisers (MWMW), this saw sprint hurdler Michael Louise take the baton initially for GB&NI, although you could be forgiven for thinking he was holding a hot potato by the time he handed the baton to 200m specialist Carol Holt.
Carol ran an outstanding 2nd leg battling hard against Poland, Italy & Ireland to make sure she passed the baton to 800/400m specialist James Colclough still in medal contention. James fought hard against the Polish Viking who had won the individual 400m earlier in the week to leave Jodie within touching distance of the Polish team on the final lap, with Italy & Ireland now trailing a little.
The last lap was a tough fought battle, particularly in the final straight, resulting in a snappy relay split of 61.14 and a European Silver medal for the team.
That’s eight days, 12 events, seven call rooms, and three glorious European Silver medals.
