THREE Blackburn Harriers shared eight medals at the British Veterans' Track and Field Championships at Barnet.

Pride of place went to double gold medallist Bob Groves while Mike Hazlewood won three silvers and a bronze and Phil Hall took one silver and one bronze.

Having turned 55 a couple of weeks before the Championships, it was Bob's first opportunity to compete in his new age group.

In 1998 he won the high jump title in the Over-50 division and he jumped in the World Veterans' Championship when it was held in Gateshead the following year.

He once held the Northern Vets Record with 1.75m and still holds the Over-50s record with1.68m - which apparently converts to an equivalent of 2.19m for a non-vet.

His winning clearance this year was 1.50m - quite modest by his own standards - but having won he raised the bar to 1.65m, but hit it hard and he is still limping!

Fortunately he had already won the 100m hurdles by then with a time of 21.10 seconds.

He made his name as a hurdler becoming county champion in Worcestershire before moving to the North West.

Joining the Harriers in 1973, he still holds the club record in the 400m hurdles at 55.6 seconds.

The former head teacher is now regarded as one of the top hurdles coaches in the north.

In his own words "loads and loads of kids" attend his sessions -14 turned out last week - and several are achieving good results in the local leagues.

His star pupil is undoubtedly Burnley decathlete Colin Bailey who has broken 16 seconds in the high hurdles, a faster time than the gold medallist in the Commonwealth Games decathlon achieved.

Mike Hazlewood was a Champion javelin thrower back in his school days, and when he left the Hazlewood Cup, which is still thrown for, was dedicated in his honour.

He joined the Army where his athletics was encouraged, and he went on to represent his country.

Now 56, his silver medals at Barnet came in the shot with 11.24m, discus 40.17m and javelin 42.12m and he was third in the hammer with 39.91m.

After 30 years, Major retired from the Army, and now he works for Impact 92, a languages consultancy firm in Lancaster.

They have sponsored him to compete in the European Veterans' Championships at Potstan in Germany.

He has a busy schedule with discus, shot, javelin and hammer events and also a throws pentathlon which includes a second hammer throw.

He travelled there last weekend and his first event was taking place today.

Phil Hall is new to veteran competition having celebrated his 40th birthday only recently, but he says "I'll be doing it again and hopefully winning."

He set his sights on the Championship after missing much of the winter with injury.

He credits coaches Arthur Almond, Mick Hitchen and Terry Wilkinson with getting him fit to compete.

He qualified for two finals and was pleased with his bronze in the 1,500m where he logged 4:08.99.

His silver in the 800m came in a brisk 1:59.67, but he feels he missed a chance of the gold.

"I was watching the wrong bloke," he admitted after letting one of the athletes break away with 400m to go.

"I thought he would come back to us and he did, but not quite enough" he added ruefully.