The National Masters Athletics Championship Indoor took place on February 22nd and 23rd in Bucharest. The only difference compared to the senior championship is that in masters everyone is competing for their age category and there are winners for each age category. The limit age for masters is 35 years old and people are grouped together in a race depending on how old they are. The first age category is 35 to 39 years and then 40 to 44 and so on from every 5 years. This is the standard that applies worldwide.
The national championship has all the track and fields of indoor disciplines. The running distances are ranging from 60 meters to 3000m. Besides running, there are also competitions of high jump, long jump, triple jump, pole vault, etc.
Initially, I wanted to run in the 1500 meters in my age category and I registered for that. However, when I saw the starting list I realized that all the other 9 competitors were about to finish the race under 5 minutes while my personal best time stays at 6:00. In these circumstances, I thought a lot and decided to skip this race. It is not common for me to change my mind after announcing that I will participate so I was not happy with that. However, this race was with people from a different league.
On Saturday, I went to the “Ioan Soter” athletics hall only as a spectator to watch the masters races during that day.
I even recorded using my phone the race where I was supposed to run that day. The winner in the 40-45 age category was Marius Busca who won it with a time of 4:07 which was a new national record for the age category. The previous record was 4:17. One week later, I saw Marius Busca running in the 3000m seniors championship final where he was the only runner over 35 years. Yet he finished 5th in that race also beating the M40 masters national record for 3000m.
As you could see in the above race, all the runners finished under 5 minutes except for the last one who did it in 5:18 but nevertheless, he would still have finished with one lap ahead of me.
Since I am writing about 1500 meters races, that day there were other two national records beaten in the same race distance. Stefan Ciochina at M60 surpassed the previous record held by Ilie Cioca by almost 20 seconds and finished in 4:59, a great time. Yet, Cioca Ilie responded the same day by beating the M75 national record with a time of 6:05. This is the beauty of running in the masters series. Every five years you enter a new category and aim for your best performance according to your age.
On Sunday, the second day of the championship, there was amongst other races the 3000m run. This is the longest distance to run in indoor competition. In this competition, there were again two new national records. Stefan Chiochina has beaten the M60 record previously owned by Ilie Cioca by 40 seconds. And Cioca Ilie replied in the same race by beating the M75 national record. This sounds like “Groundhog Day”, right?
The most spectacular race of the day was the 800 meters run at M50 where our colleague Victor Bratu who owned the 1500m record in M50 tried to beat the national record for 800m too. But in that race, it was also Gheorghe Romascanu who owned the 800m record.
Better to see the race and convince yourself that it was a nice competition. Victor Bratu had the white shirt and Gheorghe Romascanu the orange one.
Victor Bratu won the race with a new national record of 2:16 for 800m!
I would like to congratulate all my colleagues from “Trupa lui Fane” who won the titles of National Champion for their age category: Bogdan Nitulescu M45 3000m, Laura Panaitescu F35 3000m and 1500m, Gloria Suciu F50 1500m, Cristina Ciobanu F55 1500m, 800m, 400m and, 200m, Victor Bratu M50 800m, Gil Popistasu M70 800m, Vali Puzderica M50 400m, Dan Constantin M45 60m, 200m and, 400m. Many thanks to our coach Stefan Oprina who helps us becoming better runners!Congratulations also to all the athletes who participated in this event!
This was a nice championship and I am looking forward to my next race, this month on March 22nd at Baneasa Forest Run where I will run 11km.
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