Houston Elite M60 goes sub-4 in 4×4; Doc Patton claims M35 WR
All right. Forget about little Mary Cain and her latest high school record. At Saturday’s Millrose Games, Houston Elite’s Bill Collins, Horace Grant, Rick Riddle and Charles Allie averaged quarter-miles under 60 seconds in shattering the listed M60 world record in the indoor 4×400 with a sensational 3:59.09. Their ages and splits: Collins (62) opened with 58.53, followed by Grant (60) at 58.53, Riddle (61) at 62.44 and Allie (65) at 59.21. That broke the listed WR of 4:03.24 by a 2008 team that included Allie, Roger Pierce, Larry Barnum and Ralph Souppa. Later, M35 Darvis “Doc” Patton took down the oldest masters age-group record at 60 meters, clocking 6.50 to win the elite race and beating the listed M35 WR of 6.51 by Britain’s Linford Christie in 1997. The listed M35 American record was 6.98 by Mitchell Lovett in 1998. Also notable at Millrose (again run at the Armory) was Bernard Lagat scorching two miles in an American record 8:09.49 — at age 38! Lemme know if I missed any other masters records. Good show, geezers!
Doc Patton beats the kiddies in the Millrose Games 60-meter dash Saturday.
19 Responses
awsome…!!!
amazing!!
Nothing short of sensational, that’s for sure. When you combine three superstars (Bill Collins, Horace Grant, and Charles Allie) with the redoubtable Rick Riddle you know the result will be to your liking. By the way, Horace appears to have run 58.93, not 58.53 as reported here.
And how about the winning Athena 40+ squad. That team of Gaby Grebski (64.29), Deb Hoffman (61.07), Joan Hunter (63.35), and Charmaine Roberts (60.90) was smoking! Let me try to find the ages of Hoffman and Hunter, as the W50 American indoor mark of 62.82 by Jacquie Board appears to be vulnerable.
OK, Hunter is probably 49 (was 45 for 2009 Landover indoors), and Hoffman was 52 at Lisle nationals! Looks like the mark of 62.82 won’t last much longer.
Speaking of marks, Darvis Patton did break the listed American record of 6.98 by quite a margin, as you note, Ken, but that record was broken multiple times last year, even twice at nationals (Bloomington). Unfortunately, none of the new marks were accepted.
Let’s hope that all of the records set last night at Millrose will be ratified. It’s not a national or world championship, and thus automatic acceptance is out.
Just got word from a participant at Millrose that Athena ran in a different order from that shown in the results. Based on this information, the splits would be as follows:
Deb Hoffman 64.29
Charmaine Roberts 61.07
Joan Hunter 63.35
Gaby Grebski 60.90
That makes Joan Hunter, at a presumed 49 years of age, the threat to break the W50 record of 62.82 at some time in the next year.
Peter,
that is correct, they used the order at entry deadline for the results instead of using the actual relay cards submitted that night so many clubs ran in different orders than what was presented in results. Was a nice feature to get actual FAT splits, though.
Congrats to Houston Elite & Athena but also Southwest (no record but another outstanding performance).
Simply amazing relay times! Glad I got to see some of it.
Congrats to Houston Elite! Special congrats to Horace Grant who ran back to back relays taking Ron Johnson’s spot on the 50+ team on the third leg.
Some of the men’s Masters 4×4 teams also ran a different order than listed in final results.
Congrats to Houston Elite!
Special congrats to Horace Grant who doubled and also ran 3rd leg on the 50+ team taking Ron Johnson’s place.
Congratulation!
They – Collins, Grant, Riddle, Allie – are in the age group M60 but in the excuisite time group “sub60”
says
Pino Pilotto (M60 but actually time group 63.59)
I am 61 so I can Imagine the performance.
Give them my best congratulations.
The Frenchie
According to Wikipedia (which you linked to here) 6.50 would be Doc Patton’s all time personal best 60 meter time. His listed PB is 6:58 from 2003 – is it possible he’s gotten faster, or has he just hardly run the 60, or is one of those numbers incorrect?
I train on the same track as Doc, and see him at his daily business regularly. He has been coached by Monte Stratton for several years now. Doc works hard, lives clean, runs clean, smiles regularly and maintains a family life of quality. That is a recipe we can all learn from. This is his PB, but with his attitude and work ethic – it might go lower still.
Way to go Doc! (and welcome to masters track someday)
What a great performance by Doc and Houston Elite. I also have the priviledge of training on the same track with Doc and Rick. Congratulations to all of them.
I watched Millrose on ESPN Saturday night. Even though the ‘other’ races were exciting I was always scanning the warmup area to see if I could spot anyone I know from masters track. Some day they will show us too…
For 16 tight turns a sub 4:00 M60 4×4 is an amazing time.
I had the duty of getting the splits for the the out door record of 3:53.87 in 1999 at the Gateshead WMA meet. The US team was made up of Adamson, Stewart, Johnson and Colbert. Both Colbert and Johnson had run in the finals of the 400, but the Germans had qualified four for the finals. Colbert ran a close second to Mueller in the 400, but Johnson told me that down the stretch he realized a fight to the finish for an unlikely 3rd place would leave him in bad shape for the relay the next day, so he just eased up. On paper it would seem that the Germans would have the relay in the bag. Indeed, they substituted one runner for the relay. In the 4×4, the US led all the way, and Paul Johnson opened the lead to 10-15 meters over their 3rd runner, but then Colbert and Mueller took their batons. Mueller steadily gained on Colbert, coming within about 5 meters near the beginning of the stretch. Then, he tied up and lost by about 7-10 meters. It was by far the most exciting relay I’ve ever watched.
I hope our new M60 elite quarter horses can hang together for the 2013 WMA Championships and challenge the 4×4 WR this summer.
Geezers in tha house! Nice job! Shoutout to Southwest Sprinters!
🙂
Pete, it appears that the Armory website may have corrected the splits.
Good, Ed. And good to see that you are in the 800 for the Landover nationals. This looks like it will be the biggest indoor nationals in the history of the United States of America.
In fact, we already have 45 men in the 800 aged 49 OR UNDER. Almost unbelievable at this point.
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