Earl Fee’s encore to 800 WR at Lahti? Another in Sydney!
(Oct. 15 update: See comments below for correction to this erroneous post.) Last April, M80 superstar Earl Fee of Canada told Pete Magill the story of a parachutist who’d done about 1,000 jumps, and was asked what he wanted to do in the future. And he said, “Do more jumps!” And then they asked (Earl): “What do you want to do in the future?” And he replied: ‘Run more records!’ ” Mission accomplished. Tuesday at the Sydney World Masters Games, the Great Earl ran two laps in 2:49.30 — winning his age group by about 24 seconds. In so doing, he lowered his own world record from Lahti worlds of 2:49.92. His was but one of many amazing marks Down Under. I can’t recount them all, but ones that caught my eye include M55 Stacey Price’s 15.50 win in the 100-meter hurdles, W60 Phil Raschker’s 4-second margin in the 80-meter hurdles (on a day she also won the 400), and another medal (gold) for Oregon’s Becky Sisley, this time in the javelin. Of course, Olga Kotelko wins every W90 event in sight, the latest being the javelin.
Getty Images archived an angular Earl warming up with a 100 earlier in the meet.
Sad note to end this report: Officials announced the death of an unnamed canoe entrant — a foreign visitor in his late 40s. Organizers said it was the first fatality in the World Masters Games the past three Games. Bummer.
8 Responses
That’s why they call him The Great Earl. He travels halfway around the world from Ontario, Canada, then wins his age group by 24 seconds and sets a world mark in the bargain.
Runners in every country can learn a lot from The Great Earl.
What can you say? Words fail me. Wow!
Great Job Mr. Fee
Once again Ken you got it wrong Earl ran great but it wasn’t a world record he has two faster times posted, you really need to do your homework before reporting, you have made a lot of mistakes this year, maybe you should get some help.
Once again I apologize for relying on the WMA Web site for accurate world records and not doing a search of my own blog!
Had I done that before posting this entry, I would have come across Earl’s 2:48.95 of last June:
http://masterstrack.com/blog/005721.html
Despite its time stamp of “(Last update: 29 August 2009),” the WMA site is as useless as ever. It cited Earl’s time from Lahti as the world record.
In my rush to blog something from Sydney, I neglected to check a more legitimate authority for WRs — my own blog. Geeze, I’m embarrassed.
Thanks for the heads up, Anon.
Guess I was too quick to comment on The Great Earl. He’s always doing something fantastic, but in this case the blog entry was a bit off. Oh, well. I will still say that there is only one Great Earl, and I will also note that we can not always rely on the listed marks. Indeed, the WMA site appears to say that Earl ran this mark on May 2 at Lahti. I thought the meet was in August.
Congrats again to the Great Earl ! Your accomplishments and dedication is 2nd to none.
Pete, keep doing the best job you can, there so many of us who appreciate it. See ya at 50.
Sal
More photos from Sydney:
http://www.stern.de/sport/sportwelt/world-masters-games-methusalems-rekordjagd-1514686.html
Thanks for the link, Stefan!
Earl, the pearl, love the photo!!
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