Flying Scott Darren takes track titles
VETERAN sprinter Darren Scott has been back on the gold trail, winning the 100 metres and 200 metres races in the M45 category at the British Masters Athletics Federation Championships in Birmingham.
Darren, 47, is world, European and UK champion over 200 metres and has been undefeated for 11 years in his main event.
Now he has his sights set on further athletics glory as a decathlon competitor, and has already taken that event by storm after taking the M45 UK Master’s decathlon title in the summer, despite training for some events for just three weeks.
During an hour’s training session, Darren achieved the opening height and entered the UK Master’s Decathlon Championship in July.
Although he came last in the pole vault and down the field in shot, javelin and discus, he won the 100 metres, 400 metres, 1,500 metres, long jump and high jump and came second in the 110 metres hurdles to take the UK title with 5,699 – 221 points in front of his nearest rival.
Meanwhile the flying Scott has his sights set on even more gold medal glory next year when he defends his M45 200 Metres title at the European Master’s Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, in July.
Darren, a fitness instructor at The Heath Leisure Suite in Runcorn, only took up athletics when he was 21 and quickly became a top-class 200 metre sprinter, representing Scotland at international level.
But when he turned 35, he became eligible to enter masters’ competitions, where he took the world by storm.
He holds nearly 50 club, UK, British, European and world titles competing against athletes who in their hey day have graced Olympic tracks.
Darren said: “The decathlon is a challenge I’ve always fancied competing in but I’ve never really trained for field events and have always concentrated on my running, with sprint races being my number one priority.
“I’ve never pole-vaulted in my life but went to Manchester for a training session to see if I could achieve the M45 opening height of two metres. It doesn’t sound much, but the pole vault is quite a scary event.
“I was totally chuffed to win the decathlon even though some of my field events need working on, particularly the pole vault which was my worst event. I plan to carry on sprinting but have now set myself a goal to become the Master’s M50 World, European and UK Decathlon Champion by the time I am 50.”
He added: “Masters’ Athletics is really competitive. You have to be 35 or over to take part and events are broken down into bands covering five years.
“People can take part as long as they are fit and able and the masters’ events show there is no age barrier in athletics.
“I’ve seen a 75-year-old pole vaulting and a 100-year-old competitor at one championship.”
Lesley Lunt, sales and marketing manager at The Heath, said: “We are immensely lucky to have such an inspirational person as Darren working in our leisure suite and gymnasium.
“He is a quite remarkable athlete who simply loves the challenge of competition.
“He’s a born winner!”