Sprinter David Elderfield, from Tadley, celebrates winning two gold medals at the third World Masters Athletics Federation indoor championships in France

Sprinter David Elderfield is celebrating a double triumph after landing two world gold medals.

The 52-year-old veteran returned to his Tadley home at the weekend with his medal haul from the third World Masters Athletics Federation indoor championships in France, having broken the old 400m indoor world record for the second time this year.

After comfortable wins in his individual 400m heat and semi-final, Elderfield finished the first of two Saturday finals knowing he had a problem. But it was not until later that he realised he had picked up a chest infection.

Despite this, he was still able to anchor the British team to victory several hours later in the 4x200m relay final to collect his second gold medal of the day.

A record 3,671 athletes entered the six-day championships in Clermont Ferrand, in the Auvergne region, of which 287 were representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

At the Birmingham Games earlier this year, Elderfield broke the old world over-50 indoor mark of 52.76sec that had stood for 13 years. He clocked 52.54sec in an open heat and was hoping to lower the record again in France last week.

"I felt really, really comfortable in my heat and semi-final, but then the wheels fell off and it was hard graft," he said.

After clocking 56.45sec and 53.17sec in his heat and semi-final, few would have realised there was a problem in the final.

Elderfield, who won the veteran men's trophy at the recent Basingstoke and Deane Sports Awards, came home in 52.72sec - 2.62 seconds clear of second finisher Antonio Santos Beca, of Portugal, with Bernhard Grissmer, of Germany, third in 55.72sec.

"Although I was 40 metres clear with 100 metres to go, I felt really horrible at the end," said Elderfield. "I was feeling fatigued and I had a headache, so I realised something was wrong."

He was still out on the track again several hours later to run in the relay. Of the two successes, he believes the relay gold was the more remarkable.

"The Germans were clear favourites on paper because they had the silver, bronze and fifth finishers from the individual 200m final and it was one of the most difficult races there," said Elderfield.

"When I took the baton for the last leg, we were slightly behind the Germans, but we had the inside lane and I was able to hold off the individual silver medallist all the way round."

The British quartet of Elderfield, James Tennyson, Tom Phillips and Ian Broadhurst clocked 1min 38.77sec, beating the Germans who took silver in 1:39.26.

"Our baton changes all went fairly well and all the guys ran their socks off," said Elderfield, who successfully defended the individual title he won in Austria in 2006.

The AWE worker, who runs for Newbury AC while also training at Down Grange, in Basingstoke, has now collected three indoor and two outdoor world 400m titles going back to 2001.

12:11pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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