Brian and Grant represented ERAC at the World Masters Track and Field Indoor Championships held in Torun, Poland with athletes from all over the world including USA, Hong Kong, Australia and many others in the bi-annual event. 58 different counties picked up medals. On this occasion Brian Slaughter came away with a Gold Medal as part of the World Championship record winning 4x200m Mixed relay team in a new British, European and World winning performance on the last day of the Championships in leading off the team for the first leg to play his part. It was even sweeter by beating the USA into 2nd place.
Earlier in the week he had performed excellently well in the Pentathlon by scoring 3686 points just 6 points short of his own British Record, but being a World Championship it just showed the standard of competition with this bringing a 4th place overall and just missing out on those medals. He added to this with a 6th place in the Pole vault and an 0.8 second improvement on his 200m from a few weeks ago which earnt him his relay place in Great Britain team. His 5th fastest qualifier from the semi-final of the 60m Hurdles could not be transferred into a medal in that final with everyone suffering from long days and the 21:40 race time as he had to step off track after first two hurdles while fearing for a potential muscle strain and therefore saving himself for the upcoming events. “Championship are always about careful management of the mind and body he said afterwards.”
Grant Stirling who has had an ‘equalling’ great indoor season started with a long jump and in a high standard competition did himself proud with 8th place. He then moved onto the Triple Jump and his best event a fantastic 6th place 12.52m with three of his six jumps over 12.50. During the Pole Vault he entered the competition at his best with 3m and cleared this at the second attempt. He then went on to almost clear 3.15m and gained a 6th place. He was also selected for two 4x200m relays and having the potential of the glory leg on both occasions the team were 4th and just outside those medals.
The two of them will now reflect and go into summer training ready for the next challenges that await them at more local league events representing Eastbourne Rovers Athletic Club (ERAC) and Regional, National and Internationals later in the year.
In the picture Brian is shown on the left of the Great Britain Quartet above the USA team.