European Veterans' Championships

European Veterans' Athletics Association "non-stadia" events, 13-15 May, Thionville and Yutz, France.

The Euro Vets Championships were held in the twin towns of Thionville and Yutz, in the Lorraine province of the Moselle Departement of France. These towns are situated near the Luxembourg and German borders.

Maureen Noel was in action over 10 and 20k were she won two team bronzes and she also contributed to a team bronze in the cross country relay.

John competed in the 10 kilometre race walk on Friday 13th May and two days later took on the 30k race walk (18.6 miles). His hard training programme paid off as he won the men's 60-64 age-group in both races. He was very pleased to be able to beat his Austrian nemesis, Niestelberger; they have raced each other 13 times in the last three years and thanks to these results in France John has now finished in front of him in 7 of those races. He came from behind to beat him on both occasions this time, although Kovai of the Czech Republic proved more difficult to beat in the 30k. The Czech didn't take part in the 10k so was fresh for the longer race. A real bonus for John was to lead the GB M60 team to gold medals in the 30k and he dropped down an age-group to lead the GB M55 team to bronze medals in the 10k. As team manager for the Great Britain walkers it was a busy weekend but it was well worth it for the considerable successes the team achieved and the wonderful camaraderie they enjoyed (10 team medals, 6 of them gold; and 13 individual medals, 8 of them gold).

Men. 10k: 1 J Hall (GBr) 54:09; 2 L Niestelburger (Aut) 54:39; 3 H Kehrer (Ger) 55:18.  30k: 1 J Hall (GBr) 2:59:02; 2 R Kovai (Cze) 3:00:43; 3 L Niestelburger (Aut) 3:01:21.

Women. 10k: 1 B Primas (Germany) 56:30; 6 M Noel 1:01:40. 20k: 1 C Henchoz (Sui) 1:57:44; 8 M Noel 2:05:33.