Relay win two hours after running marathon

4:36pm Tuesday 13th September 2005

REMARKABLE Eila Mansfield won a bronze 4x400m relay medal at the World Master Track and Field Championships just two hours after winning silver in the marathon.

The 68-year-old from Marlow Bottom achieved her incredible double on Sunday, September 4, when temperatures for the veterans event, in San Sebastian, northern Spain, reached the 90s.

Mansfield, who had also finished fourth in the championship's over 65 cross country race just 13 days earlier, admitted she was surprised to get the call-up into the veteran ladies' sprint team.

She said: "They were struggling for girls to make the team I think because it was so hot. I was surprised they asked me to run. After the marathon I was tired and hungry but after a little sit down and a drink I was fine.

The silver Mansfield won in the marathon was her first individual medal at the World Masters having previously won team gold and silver in cross country in Brisbane and Finland.

These award-winning achievements, along with numerous London Marathon, Wycombe Half Marathon and Marlow 5 appearances, are even more amazing considering the mother-of-one from Marlow Bottom only took up running aged 40.

She said: "It was during the running boom in the early 1980s that I decided to give it a go.

"Now, when I'm training for a marathon I run up to six times a week. The runs vary from 20 miles to eight or nine, depending on how I'm feeling."