IT WAS third time lucky for Spenborough veteran Keith McGhie, who took the British Masters 800 metre title at a rain-lashed Alexander Stadium in Birmingham on Sunday.

Relentless rain made for a bleak second day to the annual track and field championships for athletes aged 35 and over but McGhie, who will celebrate 25 years with the Cleckheaton-based club in 2016, finally claimed gold after twice previously claiming silver.

The Essex-born runner beat Chesterfield-based Ludwig Ramsey by just under a second, having taken the lead at the bell and held on to win the metric half-mile race in 2min 11.5sec – the fastest time in the UK this year by an athlete over 55.

Ramsey, who also had to settle for silver in the previous day's 400m, finished ahead of Thurrock athlete Jonathan Metcalf.

"Our age group was the final race on the programme at 5.30pm so, as it never stopped raining from the moment we passed Stoke on the way down, it was a miserable day until about 5.32pm," said Keith, who also currently holds Yorkshire and European veterans' titles at the distance.

"The first time I competed in the championships when I first turned 40, I led all the way down the home straight only to be pipped by seven-hundredths of a second – about six inches – on the line.

"The next year, I was second again but well beaten, so this has laid a bit of a ghost.

"It was over 30 degrees when I won the European Championships in Turkey last year.

"Today there was about 30 millimetres of water on the track. I was getting soaked from Lud's spikes on the first lap, so taking the lead at halfway was a bit of self preservation."