HASLEMERE Border athlete John Dickinson has returned from the Multievents Indoor World Championships held in Helsinki with a superb silver medal.

Athletes from all over the world completed all 14 events over two days. Unlike the decathlon, failure in one tetradecathlon discipline woud mean disqualification.

Dickinson’s winter training had gone well and he arrived in Finland in excellent shape.

Competing in the M55 section, the first day included 60m, long jump, 800m, shot putt, high jump, 400m and 3000m. Everything was going well and the Border man was only 10 points off the lead when disaster struck in the high jump and he dropped 500 points to end the day in fourth.

Now 450 points behind the front-runners, Dickinson remained positive, knowing that he was strong in the second-day events – 60 hurdles, weight throw, pole vault, 1500m, 200m, triple jump and 5 km run.

He set about clawing back some of deficit and after achieving a personal best in the 60 hurdles, followed up with a good pole vault, his best 1500m for six years, a great 200m time of 28.1secs and an average triple jump.

With only the 5km race to come, Dickinson was in second place. However, third-placed Jukka-Pekka Hassinen of Finland had a season’s best time of 21-00 compared to the Haslemere athlete’s 25-53. But Dickinson, having gone through so much, was in no mood to relinquish the silver-medal position and stuck to Hassinen for as long as he could.

The Finish athlete recorded a fast 21-21, but Dickinson followed in 23-10, taking a remarkable 2.4secs off his season’s best and holding on to second place behind the winner, Yukio Sasano of Japan.

M55 top three: 1 Yukio Sasano 7,669; 2 John Dickinson 6,946; 3 Jukka-Pekka Hassinen 6,799.

Back home, Haslemere Border lady members entered the ‘Hard as Nails’ 10k race along the Pilgrims Way. Helen Barran finished third overall and first vet with an impressive 48mins 03secs, followed by Susie Adams (57-08), Tina Laing (1-18-11) and Anne-Marie Greenway (1-20-56).

In the heat of Saturday, Tom Bampton tackled the North Downs Way ‘50’. This gruelling race has a total climb of 5,600 feet, but Bampton completed the course in 12-14-07, a great achievement for a man who ran the London Marathon just a few weeks before.

The 24th Bognor Prom 10K took place on Sunday and saw some healthy competition between two Border athletes, with Lari Williams managing to complete the course in half the time of Debbie Parry to win a bottle of fizz.

Luke Brocks was first man home for Haslemere Border with 37mins 07secs. Donna Read recorded an excellent 43-09 and then came Lari Williams and Dan Allaway, in 46-02 and 46-00 respectively.

Other Haslemere times: Andy Wareham 48-01, Paul Fleming 48-09, Claire Beswick PB 48-32, Bob Monteath 50-59, Clair Green 53-50, Deborah White 54-40, Lorraine Herring 1-05-44, Jane Orchard 1-05-44, Sarah Barnett 1-05-45, Patsy Petersen 1-25-58, Debbie Parry 1-26-06.