Phil Raschker crushes heptathlon WR by 1,000 points
Phil Raschker turned 60 in February, so every time she competes it’s record time. Her latest WRs came at this past weekend’s USATF National Masters Heptathlon Championships in Hoover, Alabama — her outdoor season debut. Her friend and mentor Phil Mulkey writes: “Phil bettered the former (hep) record of Marianne Maier of Austria, in temperatures that never dropped below 90 degrees during the competition. . . . (scoring) 6,865 points and exceeding the 2-year-old W60 World Record of 5876 by a virtual 1,000 points!” Phil also claimed the 80-meter hurdles WR and high jump WR.
Phil Mulkey, a 1960 Olympic decathlete wrote:
Philippa (Phil) Raschker, 13-time USATF Athlete of The Year and 2003 AAU Sullivan Award Finalist, long known for her many brilliant record-breaking performances in the past three decades, put all questions to rest regarding the world record in the track & field heptathlon for women over the age of sixty.
At the National Masters Heptathlon Championships held June 8-9 in Hoover (Birmingham), AL, the Phenomenal Phil bettered the former record of Marianne Maier of Austria, in temperatures that never dropped below 90 degrees during the competition.
That she was able to manage yet another 3 world records to her ever-growing lifetime list (currently she holds 26 Indoor and Outdoor World Masters Records) was perhaps not that great a surprise. The destruction rent upon the established 2005 mark made the 44 competitors wondering what her limits would be, if indeed she could be limited. Raschker, who turned the big six-0 this past February, has been incapacitated for the past few years due to injuries, and finally being healthy, used her debut for the outdoor season to compile the largest raft of points ever by any masters heptathlete by scoring
Raschker’s individual performances for the record are as follow:
80 hurdles in 13.50 wind -2.1
high jump 1.44m (4-8 3/4)
shot put 7.72 (25-4)
200 in 29.30 wind -3.9
long jump 4.51 (14-9 1/2) wind +1.1
javelin 21.93 (71-11 1/2)
800 in 2:59.13.
Of course, the American record fell and the very good mark by Betty Vosburgh of 5,589 in Finland in 1991 was surrendered.
But perhaps it was some isolated individual efforts enroute that left other competitors in awe and almost disbelief. In her first event, the hurdles, running into a 2.1 head-wind she better the world record of Austria’s Maier of 13.78, and of course the American record of Nadine O’Connor of 14.38, with her magnificent effort of 13.50. In the following event, the high jump her final leap of 1.44 (4’8 3/4″) transplanted the American record of 1.35 (4’5″) by Kathy Bergen, and the World mark of 1.41 (4’7 1/2″) by Edith Graff of Belgium.
Not a bad two-days result for the 5-4, 110 lb, Marietta (Atlanta) GA accountant.
2 Responses
Would love to see the results. Anyone care to share them?
Great job Phil, you are really coming back well, I am so proud of you seeing that the past three years you have been troubled with unjuries.
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