A WEST FIFE athletics club can boast a world champion after one of their number raced to global gold.

PH Racing Club's Roger Clark, who also claimed the British V50 400 metres title during the summer, climbed onto the top step of the podium in the 4x400m relay at the World Masters Athletics Championships.

Together with David Shortridge, Craig Beecham and Steven Baldock, he helped the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team to first place at the competition, which was held in Tampere, Finland.

Clark ran the first leg, with a split of around 54.40 seconds, as the team came home in a time of 3:46.91, ahead of Canada, who won silver, and the host nation, who collected bronze.

That gold medal came after Clark had claimed bronze in his individual race.

With a time of 55.16, he was the fastest qualifier for the semi-finals, in which a slightly quicker run of 55.03 saw him win his race and reach the final with the third-quickest time.

He lined up for the medal race in lane four, with the two faster qualifiers outside him, but was unable to hold them off – Australia's Andrew Wilcox and Canada's Patrice Doucet – despite an even faster run of 54.49, which earned him an excellent third place.

Those achievements came after Clark travelled to Derby for the British Masters Championships as the defending V50 400m champion and retained his title with a 54.60 victory. However, a calendar clash with the World Masters Athletics Championships saw him miss this year's Scottish Masters, ahead of which he was also the reigning Scottish champion.

National titles have also been claimed by another PH competitor, Ed Norton, who enjoyed success at the Scottish Masters Championships, and the Scottish 10K Championships.

In the former, which was held in Dundee, he added 800m and 1500m track titles to his collection, which also includes in cross-country and indoor events, in the V70 age category.

In the 800m, Norton recorded a new PB of 2:46.35, which was also a new championship record that ranks him fifth in the UK for 2022, before winning the 1500m with another championship record time of 5:41.80, which was the fifth-quickest recorded among V70 UK athletes this year.

He was also successful in the Scottish 10K Championships, held in Kilmarnock as part of the 'Roon the Toon 10K' event, as his time of 43:05 saw him take V70 gold, more than two minutes ahead of silver-medallist Norman Baillie, of Garscube.

Also in action at that event were Paul Kieran and Aaron Bennet, who finished ninth V40 (34:12) and third under-20 male (36:04) respectively, with the latter having also placed third overall at the Farsand 10K in Norway.

Elsewhere, a number of PH members set PBs at the Edinburgh Marathon and Half Marathon, while coach Ben Hukins (34:28, fourth), and debutant Iain Wallace (39:37), impressed at the 5.5-mile Hill of Tarvit race.