Helly Visser ran a mile Saturday at the Running Room 36th Annual Indoor Games in Edmonton, Alberta. But whatta mile! Competing with two others, she clocked an incredible 8:19.70 to beat American Gerry Davidson’s listed world record of 10:54.48 from 2005. Oh, and did I mention Helly is 80? Here are results. Even more amazing, she called her shot to within a second! She told Curtis Stock of the Edmonton Journal: “My goal is to run it in around 8 minutes and 20 seconds.” The article also quotes her as saying: “I don’t know what is happening with me. Since I turned 80, I keep breaking records. I can’t really explain it, but I have become faster and faster. Especially over the last couple of months.” Helly’s heroics almost eclipsed a wonderful Canadian masters nationals 2,100 miles to the southeast in Toronto. The two-day meet generated 26 national records, including six by M80 Ted Rowan. (With Irene Obera joining the wrecking crew, 80 is the new hot age group.) Ted’s records came in the 50, 60, (they contested both at nationals), triple jump, pentathlon and pent high jump and long jump. Results are here. And Doug Smith’s photo gallery is here.
If it’s Sunday, it must be Obera record day. Of course, Irene Obera — the comebacking W80 from Fremont, California — also set records Friday and Saturday at Boston nationals. So after claiming the age-group 400 American record on Day 1, she followed with WRs in the 60 Saturday and 200 Sunday. Irene ran the 60 in 10.37 seconds, taking almost 1 second off the listed WR of 11.31 by Germany’s Rosemarie Kreiskott in 2011. Then she ran the deuce in the insane time of 36.53, blasting the 40-, 39-, 38- and 37-second barriers in the process and erasing Rosemarie’s listed WR of 41.34. The fastest W80 200 on record, indoors or out, had been 39.78 by American Polly Clarke in 1990. On the Age-Graded Tables, Irene’s 36.53 is worth an open time of 21.65. In Oberaworld, 80 is the new 60. For great images of nationals, see the SmugMug galleries of John Keklak.
Irene Obera in full 60-meter flight was captured by John Keklak at Boston.
In a November 2011 column for Running Times, Mike Tymn profiled Boston marathoner Barbara Broad, then 61, writing: “Barb Broad believes that her best times are still in front of her.” Barb said: “I just don’t think I have peaked yet; I really don’t.” On Day 2 of Boston nationals, we got another hint of her boundless potential. The Ohioan beat Marie Michelsohn’s listed W60 world record in the mile by 3 seconds, clocking the second sub-6 in history for her age group indoors. Wait. Second sub-6? Oh yeah. Kathy Martin won gold Saturday at the Reggie, setting yet another WR. But Kathy telegraphed her fitness for an indoor mile WR a half-dozen times in the past few years. (Duh! Kathy is the listed W60 WR holder in the outdoor mile with her 5:42.65.) But Barb is the revelation of Boston. And her presence made Kathy that much faster. Barb is well-known to the LDR set, but she appears less often on the track. In fact, Kathy and Barb were 1-2 in the USA 800 rankings last year, but didn’t meet — until Saturday. About time. Lots of other amazing records at nationals. Each deserves its own writeup, especially Texan Inocencio Cantu, whose M80 mile of 6:42.10 beat the listed WR of 6:48.02 by John Keston. Inocencio was an All-American at the University of Texas — in 1954.
Tom Petranoff would smile. Remember how he threw the javelin so far in the early 1980s that they changed the specs to make the spear land sooner? Well, they can’t make the 16-pound weight any lighter. But when officials at Boston nationals saw how Olympian Ed Burke was throwing, they avoided bodily harm by switching the weight throw to a “special night session.” So it went as Ed and multi-eventer Bob Hewitt added to their legends and world record citations at indoor nationals. Live results are being posted here. USATF erringly reported that Irene Obera set a W80 world record for 400, but her 1:34.25 was off Emma Mazzenga’s 1:33.14 clocked last week in Padua, Italy. Leland McPhie, our favorite M100 trackster, fell short of Everett Hosack’s listed WRs in the 12-pound weight and 35-pound superweight. Leland threw 2.77 meters and 1.35, compared with the late Everett’s 5.10 and 2.21. But Saturday’s events should produce a first-ever M100 high jump record at the Reggie. Irene’s 1:34 is still amazing — worth an open mark of 49.85. Ye gawd!
Leland McPhie better pace himself. Besides being entered in four events at Boston nationals, the newly minted M100 will have to navigate interview requests. The first to go live was in the Boston Herald, whose story quotes Leland as saying: “I haven’t been training too much. I’m hoping to do four events. Two of them I haven’t done before, but my coach (Mark Cleary) wants me to do it. I’ll be the only one in my age group and I can get points for the club. I’m a team player.” When it was suggested to McPhie that his versatility might have transferred to success in the decathlon, he said, “No, (it’s) too much work.” More than 920 are entered at the Reggie, and results from Day 1 should start appearing around here soon. Many media outlets are covering the three-day meet, including Al Jazeera America. An Al Jazeera field producer based in New York City contacted me, and she’ll be roaming the Reggie. Best of luck to all!
I haven’t landed a full-time job yet, but I’m back in the news saddle again. Seven months after being laid off at Patch, I’m now contributing editor to a brand-new website covering San Diego County. It’s called Times of San Diego. Check it out. The founder, editor and publisher is my former boss at Patch as well as SignOnSanDiego.com — Chris Jennewein. He’s the digital pioneer and journalism visionary who made SignOn a profitable unit of The San Diego Union-Tribune. He knows his stuff. We’re starting small but hoping to grow big, via the efforts of four contributing editors and a photographer (my wife, Chris). Patch refugees have been launching hyperlocal and regional news sites at a steady clip since AOL gave up in January. But the hunger for local news is unabated. Glad I can help serve up the chow in San Diego County!
Back to Tasmania. Aussie masters nationals ended Sunday, and here’s the scoop. The Athlete of the Meet appears to have been W70 distance phenom Lavinia Petrie. News outlets are reporting that she lowered her own world records for 5K and 10K on consecutive days. One site said she shaved 45 seconds off her own 10K record, set in January, with a time of 44:43.27. “Petrie then
backed up her performance in the women’s 70-74 age group 5,000 by breaking her own world record with a time of 21:34.08.” Lavinia
said: “As I was running around in the 10K, I was watching the clock and I thought that I didn’t have it. Then all of a sudden it was there, so I thought that I must have subconsciously picked up…. I’ve been running since I was 16 and I haven’t had any major injuries or operations. I had a full body bone scan and they told me that I had the bones of an 18-year-old.” Ah, that’s the ticket! She’s Olga Kotelko’s long lost sister!
Tom Phillips shot Rosemary in 2010, proving the flop isn’t just for under 60s. (She set WRs for shot and high jump that year as well.)
The two-day British masters nationals packed a punch. The meet ending Sunday at Lee Valley (in London) produced five indoor world records. Topping the stars was W80 Rosemary Chrimes, who set records in the natural double of shot put and high jump. (Natural for her, at least.) She tossed the 4.4-pound shot a collosal 9.58 meters (31-5 1/4) and soared 1.09 (3-6 3/4). Listed WRs are 8.22 (26-11 3/4) by Belgian Rachel Hanssens and 1.08 (3-6 1/2) by Germany legend Christel Happ. Track and jump results are here. Throwing event results are here. Other WRs were claimed by W45 vaulterIrie Hill, whose 3.52 (11-6 1/2) raised her own listed mark of 3.45 (11-3 3/4). W60 Caroline Powell ran the 400 in 68.21 to beat American Phil Raschker’s listed WR of 68.34. And W50 Clare Elms ran the 1500 in 4:40.07 to smash the listed WR of 4:47.14 by Spain’s Aurora Perez. My thanks to Athletics Weekly results editor Steve Smythe, who helped sort out the records.
Dave Albo (in red) and pals show off medals at Air Force Academy meet.
A week ago Sunday, some 29 Mid-America Region records were set at the association masters and open championships at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. So reports Colorado Masters Track & Field Club President Sue Norton, who graciously sent along the results as well. Sue says 18 Colorado USATF Association records were broken too. M55 David Albo, competing and shooting, posteda nice gallery of the action on his Flickr account. I spot Joy Upshaw of the San Francisco Bay Area in red top and No. 21 bib. She sprints, hurdles (twice) and long jumps. The oldest entrants by sex were 85-year-old Robert Coutts (10.93 for 60 meters) and 79-year-old Christel Donley, who lives in the area (and is used to 7,300-foot elevation).
Sprinters zip past Dave Albo’s camera at Mid-America Indoor championships.
Bob is second from left after Emil Pawlik and next to Phil Raschker and Bill Murray at 2009 nationals.
Bob Hewitt is our Ashton Eaton. Actually, after USATF nationals at Kenosha, Wisconsin — the indoor multi-event nationals over the weekend — Bob is our Beamon. On the way to setting an M80 American indoor record for the heptathlon, M80 Bob beat the listed WR for the long jump. He leapt 4.09 meters (13-5) to top the listed record of 4.05 (13-3 1.2) by Germany’s Hans Hoffmann in 2006. Bob’s overall hep score of 6153 demolished the listed M80 AR of 4727 by Denver Smith in 2006 (also at Kenosha). (WMA doesn’t contest the two-day event, so we have no world record in the indoor hep.) The Carthage College meet, directed by athlete/official Jeff “Decamouse” Watry, also saw Rebecca Connolly of Wilmington, Massachusetts, set a debut W45 American record in the hep, since USATF doesn’t list a record. Rebecca scored 3684 in the events — 60, long jump, shot put, high jump on Day 1 and 60 hurdles, pole vault, 800 on Day 2. The meet also served as a regional championships. And Myrle Mensey upped her own W65 world record in the 12-pound weight throw to 16.13 (52-11). See Kenosha men’s results as well as women’s results.
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
