Paula’s Euro gold

Paula Booth and medals

OLDHAM & Royton Harriers’ Paula Booth took the heptathlon gold medal at the European Masters Games in Malmo, Sweden.

Paula, the youngest in the over-50s category, won five of the seven events over two days starting with the 80 metre hurdles in 15.47s.

She followed up in the high jump, winning with 1.21m, and took the shot put with 8.47m before finishing the first day with a respectable 200m run in 33.18s.

The second day started with the long jump and another win with a leap of 3.68m, followed by the javelin and a great throw of 22.27m for another success to give Paula a big lead before the last event.

Paula was able to relax for the 800m and ran 3:22.04 to take the gold ahead of Jocelyn Pater, who set a Belgian record in second place.

Paula wasn’t finished there and took part in three other individual events, taking the bronze medal in the 80m hurdles with 15.32s.

And she narrowly missed a medal in the 300m hurdles with 60.03s for fourth and the javelin with a throw of 20.10m, again for fourth.

On the roads, five Oldham & Royton runners ran the Trafford 10k and set some good times, led home by Pete Williams who finished fifth over-50 in 41:39.

Karl Smith had a good run in 120th place in 43:05 just ahead of his brother Simon 128th in 43:37.

Louise Clarkson ran well in 168th place to finish third in her age group in 46:33, while her husband Darren set a new personal best time in 218th place in 50:35.