Sarah Roberts leads British gold rush at World Masters Indoor Champs – AW

More medals for GB athletes on day four in Gainesville, Florida, with world records also falling

Britain had another excellent day on day four in Gainesville as Sarah Roberts, Clare Elms and Ellie Stevens added to their medal hauls with 3000m golds while Susanna Wise and Andrea Jenkins also won world titles  as British throwers continue to also excel.

Roberts produced an astonishing run in the W70 plus 3000m despite running in a field of 17 runners which meant she was often running in lane three to pass lapped runners.

The W75 world record-holder led through 1000m in 4:08.20 and she produced further kilos of 4:10.62 and 4:10.00.

Though she was passed by American Nora Carey, who won the W70 title in a world record 12:24.36, Roberts bettered the previous W70 mark too but more importantly took the W75 gold medal and improved her W75 record by seven seconds with her 12:28.82 clocking.

Furthermore her time took three minutes off of the Championships best and would have won a men’s medal in the age group and was only bettered by multi world champion Hans Smeet by a few seconds.

She left distance legend Jeannie Rice of the USA over a minute in arrears as she lapped the multi world record breaker who is a huge star in US running circles.

In third Ros Tabor gained her second medal in Florida and also broke the previous championships record with 15:02.86.

Notably there more women in this category than in most of the M35 events.

Elms was equally dominant as she too lapped the field and won by a minute as she won her third gold in Florida but second individual medal.

Intending to run steadily, she was surprised the announcer said she was on world record pace after a few laps and given great encouragement, she changed plans to attempt a faster time  but also suffered with back markers  – one athlete she lapped seven times.

She missed the listed world record by just over a second with 10:49.83  but has a yet unratified 10:43 from the Irish Championships still pending.

She took over 40 seconds off of the Championships record with kilo splits of 3:31.27, 3:38.95 and 3:39.61 in a race that unusually had seven different nations in the top seven.

Argentina’s Susana Tavaloni (11:50.15) was the best of the rest.

Ellie Stevens followed up her 800m victory with a championships best 9:43.13 in the W40 event.

The Las Vegas-based Birchfield Harrier destroyed a mainly US field with 3:11.83, 3:11.26 and 3:19.54 kilometres.

This gave her a 100m margin over April Lund’s 10:00.09 and Stevens’ time was quicker than the W35 winner.

Michelle Rohl won the W55 in a championships and US record 10:21.17 falling eight seconds short of Elms’ world record.

British marathon record holder Sue McDonald finished fifth in 11:39.90.

Sarah Swift was fifth in the W50 race in 11:43.70 won by Canadian Maria Zambrano in 10:24.28.

In the throws, Susanna Wise followed up her weight gold with a W35 hammer gold courtesy of a 41.61m throw which overhauled early leader Catherine McCowan (41.04m).

Also winning gold was Andrea Jenkins in the W45 hammer. Her fourth round 44.58m gave her a near three metre winning margin over Peru’s Erika Cabrera.

Jenkins had previously been second in the weight.

The best British effort indoors in the field came from W50 Di Norman.

Denied an almost certain medal in the Pentathlon due to a cancelled Heathrow flight, she led the long jump until the fifth round with a 4.76m leap but was pipped by American Marsha Baird’s 4.98m.

Janelle Quinn was fifth with a 4.31m leap.

In the W40 long jump, Dash Newington won bronze with a 5.14m leap with Emily Fry fifth (4.91m) with German Rebecca Durr (5.67m) winning.

Bronze was also achieved by Allison Wilder in the W35 long jump courtesy of a 5.40m leap as Romanian Beatrice Puiu (5.73m) was champion.

Janet Smith followed up her hammer bronze with another in the weight (15.58m) which was close to winner Claudine Cacaut (15.97m) of France.

The USA took nine of the top 10 places in the W65 3000m event won by Nancy Simmons in 12:50.76 which was significantly slower than W75 Roberts.

The only non-American to make the top 10 was Brit Marian Grace in fourth in 13:27.97 who just lost out on a medal on the last lap.

Geoff Tyler was fourth in the M75 shot with 10.99m as Finland’s Reima Oinaanoja took gold with a 11.70m effort.

Steve McCauley (46.94m) was less than a metre from a medal in the M50 discus as German Ralf Mordhorst (53.86m) won easily.

Claire Cameron (11.11m) was sixth in the W65 weight as American Carol Finsrud (14.23m) took gold.

Jane Thrush was seventh in the W55 weight with 10.23m in an event won by Mireille Kosmala of Luxembourg 13.71m).

Saudi’s Salem Alahmadi (1.80m) set a championships best in the M55 high jump while Estonian Jurgen Lamp did likewise in the M80 triple jump (8.55m) just missing the world record.

Greek Georgios Farmakis also set a CBP with a 1.75m leap in the M60 high jump while W40 hammer thrower Amy Haapanen  set a new mark with 56.88m.

After four days Britain naturally trail USA (61 golds, 79 silver, 66 bronze) but their medal haul (17 gold, 10 silver, 17 bronze) sets them well clear of the other travelling nations led by Canada and Germany who have eight golds.

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