World Masters Athletics Championships, Tampere, Summer 2022
The World Masters Championships in Tampere, Finland has now finished.
This is a report of the occasion, a bit about the athletics, a public health announcement and LH camaraderie abroad..
Public Health Announcement
The next paragraph is something like a public service announcement.
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and from time to time the support groups ask those of us affected to make more people aware of the disease. Please be aware of this disease, by means of my anecdote, which I have removed to the foot of the page. Please read the anecdote if you occasionally have painful or swollen joints. It may be relevant and helpful.
Athletics / Camarederie / Nature
Obviously, having not sought a remedy for my particular form of arthritis sooner has left me hopelessly under prepared for a World Championships, but some rounds of competition in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 300m hurdles have sharpened me up somewhat. After the 200 metre semi final (I didn’t qualify) I was genuinely tired, as though I had trained properly. Maybe after a rest day I will have recovered enough for some exertions.
I was very pleased to get through a heat and the semi to the final of the 100m. The winner beat the world record time, but was wind assisted.
I got to the semis of the 200m and 400m missing out on a final place by 1/5th of a second in each case.
I ran a dreadful 300m hurdles race. Hit the first hurdle and stuttered over all the others. 2 seconds outside my PB for a silver medal. A good reward for a poor effort.
It is a delight to have a cohesive Heathside contingent here. Dulce and I had lunch with Noelle and Richard today, and we’ve managed to see them compete. Adrian Day is off gallivanting in a forest by a lake, just now, but he and I expect to be in the relays over the weekend. Competing at as high a level as you can is really what belonging to an athletics club means.
Noelle has competed in the 200m and 400m and Richard set a personal best in his 5000m race.
Adrian Day has had good runs in the 100m, 200m and 400m but with 5 and 6 heats at each distance these are tough competitions to progress.
Relays
Always a highlight of the championships are the relays on the closing weekend.
The older GB men have very considerable strength in depth. Adrian Day (M60) and I (M70) are hopeful to get into both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 teams at M60 and M70. My place in the M70 4 x 100 was guaranteed as there were only 4 M70 runners remaining and an M80 reserve. But from there on it was all a bit of a challenge.
Only Bruce and I put our M70 selves forward for the 4 x 400. Anthony (M80) offered to fill a spot but we couldn't find a fourth.
At M65 and M60 GB has immense strength in depth.
There is a picture below of the m60 and m65 4 x 400 gb relay teams. 3 of the M60 team are in the world top ten and the fourth is 17th. In the M65 team 2 in the top ten, 17th and me. I had Just a teeny bit of luck getting into the team with Steve (world no 2) Peters feeling a bit dicky, and Wally dropping out at the last minute. Having said that there were 8 teams on the track 2 @ M65 and 6 @ M60 and the GB M65 team came 3rd of the eight. As I say, strength in depth.
I've include a youtube clip of the M70 4 x 100 race. It shows the benefit of teamwork. If my youtube clipping has worked correctly you should see the start of the race. The M70 race is in lanes 1,2,3 and 4. At 6:23:13 into the video the handover from 3rd to 4th makes all the difference. My handover to Chris Monk goes well, the Finnish handover does not.
And talking of strength and depth the 4 most numerous teams were Finland (1,135), USA (342), GB (336) and Germany (321).
In terms of medals the numbers were Finland (328), Germany (158), GB (147) and USA (143).
 Strength in Depth |
Other Matters
Tampere is a pleasant enough place, and the weather has been very variable. Temperatures of 30 degrees the first week, but much more Nordic this week with thunder and rain thrown in.
Tampere doesn’t have quite enough tourist things to keep a large group of tourists happy. It has lakes and forests, which are very lovely, but a bit same-y. And of course, the almost total absence of night time never ceases to amaze. And there is plenty of nature in the forests and by the lakes.
The championships have gone pretty well. The Local Organising Committee seems to have been taken a little by surprise by 1) the start date 2) the very hot weather and 3) the need for a scoreboard, but things are running more smoothly now.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
RA is an auto immune disease, which means that parts of your body mistake other parts as being foreign and in need of being repelled. With RA the symptom is an inflammation in the joints. I first experienced it about 6 years ago when my hands swelled up and turned black. I was terrified. I thought they were going to go on swelling, get blacker and drop off, but that didn’t happen, my GP identified the likely cause very quickly and the rheumatologist referral resulted in a definite diagnosis and a sufficient dose of steroids to remove the symptoms. Since then the drugs have kept the symptoms at an almost trivial level, with only very occasional painful flare-ups in small joints.
Until this year. In March I had a telephone consultation with the rheumatologist and reported that my left knee was swollen. I didn’t make much of it, these things happen to athletes and no further action was planned. Until about three weeks ago, when the swelling hadn’t gone down and I wondered if Rheumatology could help. They did. I had a face to face consultation within a week, at which the fluid was withdrawn and steroids were injected. Four days later and the knee was fully functional again.
The point in recounting this anecdote is that even though I know I have RA I took a long time to identify the swollen knee as a symptom. Do you have occasionally swollen joints with no real explanation, and put them down to side effects of your exercise regime? Or sharp pains in the small joints in your hands and feet? And just accept these as part and parcel. Perhaps RA is the explanation, and can be treated. There is a blood test which unequivocally identifies the condition. It may be worth asking.
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