World’s oldest lady steepler is now Clasina Van der Veeken, shown in 2014.
Perth went
into the books Sunday, and
19 world records were set or tied, including six by Americans. The Aussies
won the medal chase, of course. As if I care. But I’m impressed how, competing in November, Northern Hemisphere athletes did so well after a hauntingly long season and Southerners excelled early in their year. Thrilled to see 2K steeple records fall like leaves — with W85
Clasina Van der Veeken of New Zealand becoming the oldest lady steepler on record, setting a debut age-group 18:30.80 WR; W80
Anne Martin’s 13:38.80 beating the listed WR by a whopping 2 minutes, 5 second; W75
Xuhua Chen’s 11:30.55 going under the listed WR by 10 seconds; and W65
Kathy Martin’s 8:57.54 lowering the listed mark by 2.5 seconds for her second WR of the meet. Also happy to see my native country, Kenya, win 10 medals, including golds by M45
Joshua Kipchumba in the 10,000 (31:40.16), M50
Yego Paul Kibet in the 10,000 (33:13.34) and three M40 gents led by
Francis Komu (1:11:07) sweeping medals in the half-marathon. M55
Joshua Pondo won Kenya’s lone field event medal — bronze in the shot. Haven’t seen many complaints, but I’d still love to hear from y’all on the meet’s conduct. Give it a grade from A to F and explain why.
Despite such a small squad, Kenyans at masters worlds took home 10 medals.
One Response
You asked for comments on the meet conduct:
I would give it an “A”
The officials were professional, courteous, there were numerous volunteers, and they knew “track & field.”
There was a great warm up area and the events were run on time. Everyone was friendly and if you needed guidance or had a question there was always someone ready and willing to lend a hand.
The only negative was lack of water available just prior to competing. When brought to the officials attention we were then allowed to access the water that was available to the javelin throwers.
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