Day 6 at Eurovets: Grounds worker killed in building collapse
Results took a back seat to tragedy this week at the Eurovets track meet, Pete Mulholland reports from Poznan, Poland. A groundsman was killed when a storage building collapsed near the throwing area on the rest day, Tuesday. A W45 British thrower was close to the collapse and described it as “thunder in the air.” On the track, the best marks may have been in the 400 by winners M40 Enrico Saracini (49.10), M50 Steve Peters (52.69) and M65 Guido Muller (57.66).
Here is Pete’s full report:
Strictly speaking, Day 6 was a day of rest as the hierarchy sat around discussing matters of importance –- well to them they were -– many of the athletes and their families toured the historical environs of Poznan.
Tragedy had struck on the rest day as news began to filter in of the collapse of a building adjacent to the throwing area and which was used for the storage of track and field equipment.
The facing wall of this ancient concrete building tumbled for apparently no reason at all and a groundsman, who had worked at the track for around 50 years, was in the building.
A British competitor, W45 thrower Claire Cameron was sunbathing close to the building at the time of the incident.
“I heard this noise and thought there was thunder in the air,” said the Scottish police sergeant. “Then I saw three security men rushing towards this building and realised that something was up.”
With 30 years of police experience behind her, Cameron instinctively rushed to the scene and frantically attempted to release the trapped groundsman but to no avail as he was pronounced dead soon after the ambulances arrived.
Many of the competitors were unaware of the situation as the track events continued with the 5000m races.
The bulk of the these races were held at the nearby University track – which had even less shade than the main arena – with just the M40 event taking place in the main stadium. Dave Taylor repeated his usual tactic of hitting the pace from the front thereafter pulling away until the finish.
It worked in Denmark, scene of these championships two years ago, in both the 1500m and 5000m and it worked for both events here.
Scotland’s Sandra Branney took a leaf out of Taylor’s book as she duplicated these tactics for a W50 1500m/5000m double and in each instance left trailing in her wake former Commonwealth 3000m champion and inaugural senior 5000m world record holder Paula Fudge who was making her masters’ track debut at any level.
M75 Briton, Derek Howarth, made it a hat trick of wins by adding the 5000m to his earlier 10,000m and 1500m successes. And there were no problems with lap recording this time around!
The 400m events came and went without much ado as greats such as M40 Enrico Saracini (49.10s), M50 Steve Peters (52.69s) and M65 Guido Muller (57.66s) all duly won without a hint of a problem.
The pentathlon men busied themselves for most of the day with arguably the best of them being M50 George Werthner with 4012 age-graded points as he added to his decathlon victory.
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Around 1797, Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm gave a large tract of what is now Poland to a German prince. According to our family history, our Ortman(n) family left northern Germany to farm in this area southeast of Pozan. They eventually left to settle in Dakota territory in 1874. In 1988, I traveled through Pozan and it would have surreal to return to participate in the Eurovets track meet, especially since my M50 National decathlon score of 6449 a few weeks ago would have been only six points or so out of second place at the Eurovets meet. But alas, it’s a closed meet, not a very friendly gesture. Even the Tour de France lets others participate.
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