Brits celebrate W35 WR, bettering listed mark of 3:19.45 by U.S. team at Winston-Salem nationals. Photo by Tom Phillips
At least six world records were set in relays Sunday at Lyon worlds, including two by American 80-plus ladies in the 4-by-1 and 4-by-4. In the short relay, Christel Donley, Flo Meiler, Fei-Mei Chou and Irene Obera clocked 1:21.06 to demolish the listed WR of 1:49.15 by a Canadian team including Olga Kotelko in 2008. Even more incredible was the 8:39.32 for the 1600 relay by the same team (with Mary Harada taking Flo’s place). They shaved more than a minute off the listed WR of 9:49.43 by Brazil in 2006. WRs also were set in the W60 and W70 4-by-4 and W35 4-by-1 and M35 4-by-4 (Britain’s 3:17.82, not showing up in results. But see photo), an indication that the debut age group is attracting more elites. Athletics Weekly has a nice UK-centric roundup of relays and other events.
From left: Fei-Mei, Irene, Christel and Mary with WR. Photo by Tom Phillips.
Sunday in Lyon is Relays Day as the 21st World Masters Athletics Championships conclude. Themedal count as of Aug. 12 showed this order overall: Germany, France, UK and USA. I’m looking for great things from the French women, who could be anchored by “Super-Nicole” Alexis in W55 (or a younger group if needed.) Results indicated she set world records in the 1 or 2, but as usual they didn’t take into account her own marks from earlier this season. She set no WRs in Lyon (except for speed into a furnace headwind). I’m also seeing Facebook postings about athletes bemoaning relay picks. It’s a recurring issue, but at least the American selection system has been laid out plainly. (As is Australia’s.) It’s not as subjective as some might contend. Every two years, the world meet produces WR marks in the relays. Look for the same in Lyon. Best of luck to all the squads — and don’t do what I did at Lahti (heave the baton into the air out of joy. I caught it.) My bronze-medal team wasn’t DQ’d, but yours could be.
David Heath and Anselm LeBourne will meet in the IAAF Beijing 800 exhibition in two weeks, but it looks like David is a front-runner for gold. Friday in Lyon, the brilliant Brit clocked 4:01.54 in the metric mile at age 50. That crushed one of the oldest world records on the books — the 4:05.2 by Australia’s Tom Roberts in 1984. In the M55 final, Anselm edged fellow American Ray Knerr, 4:22.21 to 4:22.49. So that makes two golds for Anselm, who also won the 800 in 2:04.79 (with Ray getting silver there, too, in 2:05.29. David won M50 in 2:01.93.) Would love to see them in a 4-by-800, but WMA doesn’t contest this event. Perhaps even more amazing than David and Anselm was Germany’s Melitta Czerwenka-Nagel, a W85 superstar who ran WRs in both the 8 and 15, clocking 4:15.99 and 8:50.42 (the listed WRs are 4:56.10 and 8:51.67). She also won the 10K in 33:35.62. Melitta also holds the W80 WRs for 1500 and 3000 and the W75 WR for 10K. Notable in M35 was a rare tie. Artur Kern of Poland and Alberto Sabado of Spain were both timed in 4:02:652. But back to David’s 4:01.54. That’s equivalent to a sub-4:20 mile. The listed M50 WR is Nolan Shaheed’s 4:25.04. So get this gent to the Iffley Road track!
Anselm signals victory in M55 1500, edging Ray. Photos by Tom Phillips
Liz Palmer is a connoisseur of fine wines — and masters athletes. She reminded me of the wonderful worlds Rachel Guest is having. She’s been on my radar, but I haven’t had a chance to do her justice. Liz helped me, providing this summary: “Rachel Guest turned 40 in April and turned her attention to the W40 American record in the heptathon at Lyon. The current AR is 4463 set by Caryl Senn-Griffiths in 2003. Rachel eclipsed that by over 1,000 points with a score of 5468 that earned her the silver medal in that event. The winner of the event was Marsha Mark-Baird, a two-time Olympian from Trinidad and Tobago. Rachel led the hep in total scoring until the javelin when Marsha overtook her lead and ultimately won the gold medal. Rachel finished first in the hurdles, high jump and 200. Her marks: 80 hurdles (11.62, 1013 pts), high jump (1.61, 941), shot put (8.87, 519), 200 (26.04, 949), long jump (5.54, 893), javelin (31.56, 595) and 800 (2:49.14, 558). In addition, Rachel scored a bronze in the long jump, leaping to a mark of 5.56 (18-3) with Mark-Baird taking the gold. Rachel’s final event will be the 80m hurdles, where she has the world leading mark and is hoping for another American record — the existing standard of 11.47 seconds was set by Stephanie Thomas in 2005. Rachel’s season best is 11.62 and she is keeping her fingers crossed!” So are we, Liz. Go Rachel!
According to Spanish media, the southern city of Málaga has been chosen to host outdoor worlds in 2018. The city of 570,000 outpolled a bid from the Venice region of Italy in Thursday’s General Assembly in Lyon. This reflects the sentiment of our poll. Malaga won by a vote of 98 to 25, WMA source tells me. “It will be the second time that our country hosts the veteran athletics showpiece after the edition which was held in San Sebastian in 2005,” the report noted without sharing the exact vote count. “The next edition of the championship will be held in the Australian city of Perth from 26 October through November 6, 2016.” WMA’s website has yet to post the news, but I’ve written for details about this and other decisions. Thursday is rest day at worlds, but here’s the results site and perhaps a better compilation on the WMA site. Now can’t USA get its act together and bid for 2020?
Here’s what the potential main stadium looks like in Malaga, Spain, for 2018.
Joy applauds long, tall Barbara after 300H WR. Photo by Alan Kolling
Joy Upshaw’s dad, Monte, long-jumped 25-4 1/4 for Piedmont High School in 1954, breaking the national high school record set by a gent named Jesse Owens. Less well-known: Monte beat future Olympic decathlon legend Rafer Johnson in the 180-yard low hurdles in that same California state meet (but losing to Rafer in the 120 highs). Tuesday in Lyon, W50 Joy took silver in the 300 hurdles to Germany’s Barbara Gaehling, whose 44.90 broke the listed WR of 45.05 by Swiss miss Christine Müller in 2008. Barbara’s time is amazing, but Joy (at 54 among the oldest in the field) gives pause with her 49.03 — and the fact she’d been hobbled by injury this season and was the No. 8 qualifier for the Lyon final. The W55 American record is 49.14 by Phil Raschker and the WR is 49.00 by Britain’s Jane Horder, so watch out for a healthy Joy in Perth!
Rob Jerome’s stunning shot of Joy Upshaw in the 300 hurdles at Lyon.
The YouTube description says: “Video clip in tribute to sprint and middle-distances runners. Pierre Coquelle for the World Masters Athletics Championships – LYON 2015. Music by Tobu.” Digital and social media are doing a great job of piecemeal coverage (especially on Facebook), but I’m dismayed that after days of inquiries, I can’t get a digital copy of the Lyon General Assembly handbook. This booklet appeared in digital form at 2009 Lahti worlds, 2011 Sacramento worlds and 2013 Porto Alegre worlds. Among other things, it tells delegates to Thursday’s meeting what rule or bylaw changes are up for vote. So unless you were lucky enough to get the hard copy, you’re in the dark on what’s going down. Now I’m making an appeal to anyone: Take cellphone shots of the pages with “change” proposals andemail them to me. I’ll post them as searchable PDFs — and give the rest of the world at least a tiny heads up.
Ian, George and Thad at M60 medal ceremony. Tom Phillips photo
At 2013 worlds, Thad Wilson won the M60 300 hurdles, with fellow American George Haywood third. Tuesday in Lyon, they swapped places, with George taking gold in 45.31. But Thad had to fight for bronze well after he finished in 45.91 — a half-second behind Ian Broadhurst of Britain. Credit my UK photographer friendTom Phillips — an M60 sprinter who twice ran sprint relay legs against Thad. Tom writes: “Thaddeus Wilson was third – and then, twenty minutes or so later, he wasn’t. He had been DQ’d for allegedly deliberately knocking over the second-last hurdle. Now, that happened to be exactly where I had been shooting the event, and I really didn’t remember seeing that down the lens. Hardly the action of a gentleman of the track like Thad, either. So I looked back at my photos to see what I’d got. There were two great pictures of a tired M60 athlete just failing to get his heel over the barrier, and nearly demolishing it.”
These Tom Phillips shots saved Thad Wilson from DQ in 300 hurdles at Lyon.
Reggie Pendland and his M45 100 gold. (See story below.)
Bob Weiner writes from Lyon: “In the first week of the World Masters Athletics Championships ongoing in Lyon, France, the USA team has won 24 golds to date and broken four world masters records and tied one. The team has amassed 62 medals overall. In individual highlights: Bruce McBarnette, 57 (Sterling VA), won his 12th world title in the high jump, the most of any high jumper in history. World marks have been broken by Flo Meiler (W81) in the W80 heptathlon; Christel Donley, also W80 just behind Flo but also breaking the old mark … and Kathy Bergen, W75, who set a world record in the 200 meters and tied the high jump world mark. … Also at the meet, the USA is having a team party arranged by MTF Chair Gary Snyder, who heads the delegation, at 6:30 p.m. French time Friday, Aug. 14, at the Mercure Saxe Lafayette Hotel. Team manager Phil Greenwald holds team meetings at 10:30 each morning at the Balmont Stadium track on the day’s complicated logistics (five venues) and schedule and is now busy arranging relay teams for USA to aim at gold.” Here’s a chart of U.S. medalists prepared by Mary Trotto.
With the stands practically full Monday, an estimated 4,000 people at Balmont stadium in Lyon cheered sprinters including American Kathy Bergen. And Kathy delivered, clocking 33.79 for 200 and beating the listed W75 world record of 33.86 by Canada’s Christa Bortignon in 2013. “Kathy took a commanding lead from the very outset,” one observer said, sending a photo taken through the metal fence “that separated us from the track. (The track fans of Lyon must be very dangerous to need a fence like this).” Results have not been posted as of 3 p.m. Pacific time Monday (midnight in France), and I haven’t seen a wind reading. But a photo of trackside timer showed 33.79. Kathy has a pending indoor WR of 33.06 from March.
Kathy leads Canada’s Christa Bortignon in her WR race. Tom Phillips photo
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...]
