Kevin Deakes helped Great Britain claim the bronze medals in the World Master’s Championships in Brazil on Sunday and claimed fourth position overall.
The day started for Kevin at 4am to
be ready for the half-marathon, due to start at 7am. After a quick breakfast at
5am he caught the bus across the city to the banks of Lake Guiba where the race
was due to be held. It had been raining most of the previous day and overnight and as
soon as the sun rose the temperature began to rise and the humidity with it.
Kevin went through his warm-up routine about half an hour before
the advertised start time but it soon became clear that there would be a delay
as there were many athletes still trying to get their timing chips as 7am
approached.
The race began at about 7:15am and there was chaos
immediately as a Portuguese athlete tripped and fell to the floor with lots of
runners behind him. Kevin said: "I just managed to stay upright after
catching his leg with my foot. After that I was able to get into some sort of
rhythm helped by the fact that the course was pretty well flat. The out and
back route followed a roughly north south path along the side of Lake Guiba in
Porto Alegre heading south for 5 miles before returning past the start/finish
and continuing for another 1 and a half miles or so before turning around to
finish."
The first 6 or 7 miles were at about 5:55 pace but as the
conditions began to take their toll it fell back to about 6 minute miles. Kevin
went through 10 miles in 59:30 before the pace really began to drop off more
than he had hoped for with his final time being clocked at 1:19:43.
"I had gradually picked off several runners in my age group
over the first half of the race but it wasn’t until the last turn that I could
see which position I was in as I saw the bibs of the athletes ahead of me
heading to the finish. Unfortunately I counted 3 M50 ahead of me all of
whom were too far away to realistically catch so I finished in the dreaded 4th
position, just outside the medals."
All was not lost though because two of his GB teammates followed
him home fast enough to claim the Bronze medal in the team event, just as
they had done in Finland last year.
After returning to the stadium for what was meant to be a
medal ceremony at midday, there was a long delay before it finally took place
at around 4:30pm, by which time Kevin’s said he was on his last legs having to hang around in
the heat waiting for the results to be posted and then the ceremony itself.
Kevin concluded: "After the months of training towards getting it, the medal
was worth the wait."
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M50 Half Marathon
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Name Age Team Finals Points
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Results - Men 50
1 2785 Grassi, Gianluca M51 Italy 1:16:02.00
2 703 Eror, Milan M50 Austria 1:16:42.00
3 3 Alem, Ahcen M53 Algeria 1:17:01.00
4 2475 Deakes, Kevin M52 Great Britai 1:19:43.00
5 552 Villafane, Francis M51 Argentina 1:23:44.00
6 463 Roldan, Hugo M53 Argentina 1:24:03.00
7 314 Kreiker, Ricardo D M52 Argentina 1:24:39.00
8 1310 Silva, Odilio M51 Brazil 1:27:00.00
9 2480 Doxey, Steven M53 Great Britai 1:27:23.00
10 1994 Sotelo Herrera, Ru M52 Costa Rica 1:27:56.00
11 1748 Vargas Uribe, Osva M53 Chile 1:27:59.00
12 1750 Veliz, Antonio M54 Chile 1:28:00.00
13 1455 Aguila Aguila, Mig M53 Chile 1:28:03.00
14 892 Da Conceicao, Joao M52 Brazil 1:28:53.00
15 96 Biroccesi, Jorge L M51 Argentina 1:29:16.00
16 156 Clerice, Julio Ces M53 Argentina 1:30:23.00
17 292 Gutierrez, Toribio M54 Argentina 1:31:20.00
18 414 Palermo, Julio M50 Argentina 1:35:03.00
19 3244 Ticona Nunez, Clem M50 Peru 1:39:11.00
20 1665 Pena, Chester M50 Chile 1:40:40.00
21 118 Calveyra, Aldo Jav M53 Argentina 1:41:04.00
22 1578 Gonzalez, Orlando M50 Chile 1:44:13.00
23 527 Trilla, Oscar M50 Argentina 1:46:55.00
24 1251 Rotta, Andre M53 Brazil 1:49:19.00
25 377 Mira, Jose Luis M54 Argentina 1:49:43.00
26 1745 Vallejos Jeria, Ro M53 Chile 1:50:54.00
27 1735 Umana, Norbelto M50 Chile 1:51:58.00
28 1659 Oyarzun, Jorge M53 Chile 1:52:25.00
29 1629 Matus Spinelli, Fe M54 Chile 1:54:20.00
30 499 Serraino, Juan Ado M50 Argentina 1:56:51.00
31 1971 Calderon Camacho, M53 Costa Rica 2:01:30.00
32 1106 Lozano, Joao Batis M51 Brazil 2:11:00.00
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