W45 world indoor record corrected; it belongs to Debaets
My apologies to Corinne Debaets, a W45 miler. A few days ago, I touted a world indoor record of 4:38 for 1500 meters by the UK’s Clare Elms at the British masters nationals. Turns out Clare didn’t set a WR, because Corinne ran an amazing 4:28.13 several weeks earlier (Feb. 22) at an open meet in Gent, Belgium! I learned this from a German friend who referenced the always-up-to-date Eurovets records page by Ivar Soderlind of Sweden. The WMA records page is updated infrequently and didn’t reflect Corinne’s mark. What a year for the 1500!
Some great throws at SoCal and Southwest ‘indoor’ meets
Bart Stagg of the Southern Association says his Southwest regional indoor meet Saturday in Baton Rouge drew 79 athletes, ranging from the kidlets (including a 9-year-old who reportedly set a pole vault world record) to 98-year-old throwing stud Trent Lane. Here are the results. Bart reports: “You’ll be hearing more from us throughout the year. By the way, we have also convinced the Louisiana Senior Games management to allow 40+ into most of their meets.” M65 Tom Gage, continuing his comeback from open heart surgery, threw the 20-pound weight 19.62 (64-4 1/2), just short of George Mathews’ recent American record. Over on the Left Coast, perhaps a similar number competed Sunday at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California — Andy Hecker’s “Southern California Indoor Meet . . . Outdoors.” Results are here. M80 Arnie Gaynor heaved the 12-pound weight 13.94 (45-9) to improve on his own American record. The listed AR is 13.56 (44-6) by Dick Mulkern in 2005.
Masters national hep results are up, but where are records?
M55 champion Bill Murray shares this link to results of the USATF National Masters Indoor Heptathlon Championships at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. But in looking to see if any hep records were set at the meet Saturday and Sunday, I came up blank. Actually, USATF’s hep record site was blank. I know records exist, because M50 hep champ Jeff Watry posted these a few years ago (with the latest records being Bill Murray’s from 2005). Just FYI: The indoor hep consists of the 60, long jump, shot put and high jump on Day 1 and 60 hurdles, pole vault and 1000 (800 for women) on Day 2. WMA’s Age-Graded Tables are used to affix points to performances. (World Masters Athletics keeps age-group records for the indoor pentathlon, but not the hep.) Including submasters, about 30 men and women took part over the weekend, including W55 Kay Glynn and W60 Phil Raschker. I’d love to know if anyone set a record at Kenosha. It’s a national-championship meet, after all.
M50 Brian Pilcher runs sensational 15:47 for track 5000
heat, and with three heats of 5K’s left . . . the
auto-timer came over to me and said he couldn’t do it anymore. Too dark
to take pictures.”
Clare Elms chops down 2 indoor records at British nationals
Another 1500 WR bites the dust! This time it’s by Clare Elms, who lowered the W45 world indoor record at the British masters nationals this weekend at Lee Valley. Complete results are here. But Clare likes her records in pairs. So she also claimed the 3K British indoor record as well. Her 1500 mark of 4:38.05 zapped Zofia Wieciorkowska’s year-old WR of 4:40.4. Her 3K mark was 9:59.23. And the sprinters also got into the act as Caroline Powell broke the W55 world indoor record for 400 meters, blasting a 63.87 to replace the listed 66.82 by Caroline Marler of Belgium, reports Tom Phillips from the UK. Caroline Powell set the W50 record of 61.29 last year at Clermont-Ferrand worlds, so this is no surprise.
— at a meet where she won four golds.
Tony Young clan profiled by Pete Magill, muddy shoes and all
Blogger extraordinaire Pete Magill is becoming the Barbara Walters of masters running. His athlete interviews are warm, knowing, revealing. And funny! His latest triumph is this family Q&A with M45 miler Tony Young, his wife Heather (an ex-collegiate star) and running kids Mack and Andie. It’s a kick. Pete asks who does the laundry, whether the kids let Dad on the track when they are training, and what they think of Dad’s records. Great questions. Great chemistry. Nice work, Pete.
Tony, Mack, Andie and Heather enjoyed a Maui vacation last year.
Frank Morton of the Bronx is 500th member of our Forum
Yesterday I shipped off a Geezerjock ballcap to Frank Morton — a thank-you for his being the 500th person to register for our Forum. Frank runs for the Nike Central Park Track Club and frequently shares results from the Armory and elsewhere. His most recent news is about fellow club member Sid Howard: “Sid was only a little more than 5 seconds off the American indoor record in the 800 last Thursday at the Thursday Night at the Races track meet at the Armory in New York (he ran 2:39.point something) on his 70th birthday (in the past he has set the World and/or American record on his 60th and 65th birthday). This was after being injured for a while.” Frank’s a middle-distancer himself, and hopes to be in the M55 mix at Landover nationals — despite having three knee surgeries in recent years. Congrats on your comeback, Frank! And thanks for joining the Forum.
Frenchman smashes M60 world indoor record for 1500
The 1500-meter WRs are dropping like flies! First Alastair Dunlop dunks the M55. Then Tony Young yanks M45. Now we learn that Raymond Zembri of France has zapped the M60 record. A 1972 Munich Olympian in the 5000 meters (he didn’t make the final), Raymond ran the 15 in 4:36.52 at the French masters nationals over the weekend — one of 23 French masters age-group records. (Here’s a story on his record du Monde.) He bettered the listed M60 world indoor record of 4:37.80 by Britain’s Maurice Morrell back in 1994. Ray turned 60 the day after Christmas. A big masterstrack.com merci beaucoup to Jean Thomas for sharing this news. Congrats to our French friends! Best of luck at Eurovets!
Here’s another way for masters to sneak into Penn Relays
So you don’t have a relay team or go fast enough to qualify for an individual masters dash at the Penn Relays? No sweat. Tell your boss (or former boss) about the corporate distance-medley relay at Penn. Last year, some USATF masters competed, including M50 sprinter Archie Glaspy (for AT&T) Check out this PDF for entry form and details.
Joan Benoit Samuelson enters Landover nationals in 3K
At 51, Joan still rocks.
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With the final late-entry deadline at midnight Pacific time tonight, at least 850 athletes are signed up for the USATF Masters Indoor Championships in Landover, Maryland — a record for a meet that marks its 35th anniversary this year. We already know Henry Rono is coming. But a lady legend has entered as well — Joan Benoit Samuelson, who in 1984 won the first women’s Olympic marathon in Los Angeles. Bob Weiner says she’ll travel down from her home in Maine to run the 3000 in the W50 age group. It’ll be a kick for her compatriots to run with the champ. Just in case anyone is wondering, the listed age group world indoor record for 3K is 10:06.36 by Spain’s Aurora Perez in 2008. The listed American record is
