Surrey Vets Champs 2010

VIC MAUGHN, MICHAEL MANN AND KWEI SANKOFA won age category races on the rain soacked track out at  West Ewall, near Epsom. All three had Surrey Athletic Association Masters Championship records to their name, which were unlikely to be bettered in the murky conditions. M45 100/200/400 - Kwei Sankofa 11.8/24.1/53.9.
M45 800 Vic Maughn 2:08.7 and M55 Michael Mann 4:38.2.
    Perhaps the most exciting race in the gloom on the 29th was when Kwei Sankofa, now 50, held off the fast finishing, British Masters M45 Silver medallist and Indoor BMAF Champion, Pat Logan, in the final 50 metres in the combined age group 200.
    Drama took place in the M40/45 category 800 when Vic Maughn, after  having  a sizable lead, with a 65 second first lap in the 800, pulled a calf muscle. He bravely continued the race for the second half but naturally was overtaken by the first M40 in the finishing straight. He still held on to win the M45 title. Of course he was unable to run the 1500/5000 that he also intended doing well in.
    What brought these three into the sport as competitive athletes?
      VIC MAUGHN (D.O.B 5/4/62)
        " It was a life saver as I had started doing Karate as a boy and I used to go jogging for that. I got a lot of injuries. As time went on I started to like jogging more than the actual karate. I had asthma when I was young. Running & jogging helped my breathing. As I did more and more running the asthma started to disappear and in a few years it went so I started running at 14."
      MICHAEL MANN who will be 62 this year (D.O.B 16/7/48) " I did not do much running till I was over 40. Some friends of mine began to get into running and I did the odd race. I joined Dulwich runners when I got to 50 and then I got the real incentive. I thought I might compete quite well in that age group but I did get injured." (He runs track for HHH and road & country for Dulwich.).
      KWEI SANKOFA (D.O.B 5/7/59) " I never ran before I was 40. I got into into it by my son Moyo Sankofa. I used to just do circuits and general fitness. When I brought my son into it at Herne Hill I thought, running would be a good challenge for me. We became rivals as he grew up. He progressed and at 16 he got 3rd in the London Schools and his time got him third in the country. (49.42 for 400) before he got injured. I continued along the road"
    Sankofa ran 52.4 at the age of 46 and remarkably he ran 53.28 at 49, after being dogged with Achilles problems before that in 2009. His time was achieved coming 2nd in the World Masters Championships in Lahti  Finland on the 7th of August, when he gained a silver medal in the 400 M45 Final. This year he won British M50 Masters indoor titles over 200/400 in 24.78//55.12 and he was second in the 60m in 7.65.
    He adds " I am competitive but honestly life is competitive. If you are not competitive you should not be in the sport.' He continued ' It has got fantastic health benefits and stands you in good stead as you get older."
     Although Michael Mann has found more success on the track in 'Age Related' events over 50 and 60 he loves to also run on the road and country. He said he did 15 cross-countries in the season and also has won his age group races right up to and including the half marathon on the road. As an M50 he ran 2:15.2 for 800 and 2:17.1 as an M55 runner. Regarding the British titles he points out
    " I like to do the 800 but it is on the same day as the 5000 at the British Masters  Championships.I prefer to do the 1500 on the first day rather than two hard finals on the same day now.'
In things like the Surrey Masters he does several events and wins in his age group often. He points to a race as an M55, when the stadium was full, as a very exciting one. " It was in Ljubljana in the European Masters Final in 2008
 It was a very hot competitive race and I ran 2:21 and was 5th. It was won in 2:16".
    Vic Maughn as a younger man was a good club runner. He ran around 1.56/3.58 for 800/1500 which he considered reasonable but he went on " I had fleeting fame as a teenager in a race won by Don Faircloth, the Commonwealth marathon bronze medallist. It was in the Greenwich 11 and I ran 56 minutes for the course and I was only nineteen at the time."
    What part did he think athletics played in his life:-
    " All my friends are athletes. For me it is a way of life. More than just running. It's nice to win but it's the friends, the fitness, the health. Getting out in the sun and going for a run with your friends on a nice warm Summers' day
and have a couple of beers with them afterwards. It makes it all worth while. I have been doing it for 33 years and I don't plan to stop. I had a bit of a set back today but it goes like that sometimes."