Bruce McBarnette raises own M50 American record in the high jump
Competing against two other jumpers 30 years his junior, 52-year-old Bruce McBarnette cleared 1.94 meters (6-4 1/2) Saturday at the Atlantic Coast Invitational in Newport News, Virginia. Results are here. That ups his own M50 American record of 1.93 set last year at Oshkosh masters nationals. By Bruce’s count, “this was the 11th time in less than three years that McBarnette has broken a United States high jump record for (his) age group,” says a press release sent out today.
Meet director Vincent Pugh congratulates Bruce (right) at the Atlantic Coast Invitational in Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Bruce McBarnette)
A recent inductee of the USATF Masters Hall of Fame, Bruce cleared the record on his first try “before an excited crowd of athletes and spectators.”
Bruce gave out several signatures to youth at the meet and said: “By being a role model, I try to encourage young athletes to do their best on and off the field.”
Only one thing left for Bruce’s resume: a world record. The listed M50 WR remains the legendary 1.98 (and 2.00 indoors) by Germany’s Thomas Zacharias, a 1968 Olympian.
That’s 6-6 and 6-6 3/4.
20 Responses
Well done Bruce!
Congratulations. He makes it look so easy!
Right you are, Kim. What impresses me is that Bruce jumps like a much younger competitor, perhaps someone in his mid-20s. At 52, Bruce has a very long approach and uses a lot of speed.
For some reason, because Bruce is 52 I took a look at the results for the men’s high jump in the 1952 Olympics. Third place was 1.98 meters by Jose da Conceicao of Brazil; Bruce jumped 1.94 this past weekend. Pretty impressive, I would say, even after considering the improvements in technique and facilities over the intervening period.
For our big meet in Sacramento, Bruce is not entered in the high jump, but if he does enter that will be one of the best events of the championships. Already the M50 high jump has such stalwarts as Mark Williamson, Thomas Foley, Olympian Willie Banks, Peter Hlavin, and Brian Hankerson. Nice.
Nice to see that entries for Sacto are finally being updated again, PT.
Yes, Mellow Johnny, we can thank Ken Stone for alerting USATF staff about the problem. Almost unbelievable that we could have gone so long without updates.
As of 11 AM EDT today (Monday), Mellow Johnny, we had about 531 entrants (this estimate relies on my special formula, which I tested once again a few weeks ago — it worked perfectly). We need, in my estimation, to reach 600 by midnight tonight, 700 by midnight Tuesday, 850 by midnight Wednesday, 1025 by midnight Thursday, and 1130 by close of on-time entries on Friday (entries close early on Friday). Thus, we have to start “hauling.”
After regular entries are closed, I think we can get another 120 people from the following: (a) late entrants, who must pay $50 extra; (b) Canadian entrants and perhaps one or two from Jamaica, Bahamas, etc., or even Europe; and (c) “on-time” entries that arrive late.
That would put us at 1250, Mellow Johnny, and I think we can get it. Amazingly, in the last 9 outdoors (2001 through 2009) we had just 1 (Charlotte in 2006) that had 1250 entrants or more!!! A terrible dry spell, but perhaps we can come out of it this year. It could be close.
Thanks for the rundown, PT. Do you think entries will roll in like that or do you think we may just get a flood Thursday night and throughout the day Friday?
Seems to me we should be getting even more entrants from Cali. Perhaps they’re waiting till the last minute(?)
Well, Mellow Johnny, as a high school teacher you know that technological change is one of the keys to history. People are now so thoroughly familiar with doing things over the Internet (by whatever means) that the entry patterns of even 10 years ago are obsolete. Thus, as you perhaps are indicating, we may simply have an absolute flood on Thursday and early Friday after more modest rises earlier in the week. People do not worry about entering very late.
Potential competitors do not believe (I guess) that the USATF Web site could ever be down, that their own computer could fail to connect to the Internet, etc. As for your point about Californians, I do not know. I expected huge numbers from California and still do.
Note that the deadline on Friday is 5 PM for the Easterners, not midnight. Thus, we can’t use “throughout the day” literally (ends at 8 PM on Friday for those on the Pacific Coast).
Yes, computers and technology are great…as long as they’re working correctly. When they aren’t, there isn’t a bigger headache out there.
I’m sure you caught this already, PT, but the deadline is only 2pm on Friday for us Pacific Coasters so we’ll know early Friday on good guess for the numbers. Can’t imagine a lot of people wanting to tack on the $50 late fee (particularly in this economy) on top of the normal fee, dorm/hotel costs, travel costs, and even the parking fee.
Mea culpa, Mellow Johnny. Yes, I “flipped” the times. Deadline is very early for those on the Pacific Coast, just 2 PM on Friday as you say. Wow, that is an early deadline.
Agree with you on the $50; people have known for a long time that for the first time in the history of the United States, Sacramento will be the site of our outdoor masters nationals. I can’t imagine that a lot of people will wait until after the deadline and then decide to enter (and pay the fee).
Congratulations Bruce! Hope to see you in Sacto!
Looks like entries are starting to really pick up. My guess is that the whole system was down (instead of entries just not being updated) so people couldn’t register at all and now are getting their entries in.
Because this is Bruce’s story, Mellow Johnny, I have to give him more credit. I believe he has crossed the line from star to superstar. I truly think that Bruce McBarnette is one of the finest performers in US masters T&F today.
Back to your point, Mellow Johnny. I think we are going to have ourselves a track meet in Sacramento next month. Based on my formula, we had about 531 entrants at 11 AM today (EDT). Nine hours later, or 8 PM EDT, we had 616. Thus, we are moving very quickly and may hit 1000 as early as Thursday morning. A total of 1300 no longer seems out of the question.
Of course, if the whole system was actually down for 5 days (I have no idea), that would change my thinking quite a bit. Regardless, if we get to 800 tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, I think we are in good shape.
congratulations…again…bruce’s smile says it all !
Bruce is amazing…6′ 4.5″ is very competitive for young high schoolers’ legs. To be doing what he’s doing at 52 is nothing short of incredible.
Bruce,
Congratulations yet again! You make the over 50 group very proud with these amazing accomplishments!
Dot
Terrific Bruce!!! Congratulations on your
accomplishment & success !
Congratulations! You are awesome. I look to see more amazing things from you.
Congratulations Bruce. Your niece and my HS friend is sooo very proud of you. Wonderful job and no the name is correct just the spelling is different
Congratulations, Bruce! You are truly a role model in every way and the lives of your family and the people you touch are truly enriched by your presence.
Your Brother-In-Law,
Walter
What an incredible athlete you are. Congratulations!
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