Liverpool trip yields gold and bronze for Eastbourne masters duo

Stirling had won a European indoor bronze and taken world outdoor sixth place for triple jump this year and Slaughter is a multiple combined event winner and record holde.

The 100m was affected by strong winds but in the long jump the pair were strong.

Next was a strong event for Slaughter, the shot put, and he had to wait until his last throw to record 10.69m.

The wind was not ideal for the high jump but Slaughter was happy with his 1.38, Stirling less so with his.

In the 400m despite Slaughter’s experience, he got in wrong in going out to hard and scored 200 points less than he should have. Stirling was happier with one of the fastest times of the day.

Day two started with the sprint hurdles and Stirling recorded 17.08 to Slaughter’s 18.41.

Slaughter led the field in the discus with 35.84 and was second across all age groups in the pole vault with a 2.70 first-time clearance.

With just the javelin and 1500m to come, exictement was building.

Just before the 1500m, Stirling was in the silver medal position for his M45 age group and Slaughter led in the M65s and had the overall handicap lead for most points scored. The two ran solid races to maintain those medal positions.

Slaughter’s 6947 point tally was 200 points short of the British record. He said “It was a great weekend of competition but just falling short of the British record was hard.”