Someone check Ed Burke’s arms. Have they fallen off yet? A week after taking six tries in all five events of a pretend throws pentathlon (unofficially beating Bob Ward’s listed M70 WR of 4984 by a single point), the three-time Olympian competed last weekend in a genuine throws pentathlon at the Nevada Senior Games but fell short of the record. See results here. Ed scored 4639 last weekend at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In reply to a query, Ed wrote me before the Nevada meet: “I did compete in all five throwing events on Sept. 28 at UCSC Throwers Meet / Shaffer Park, Santa Cruz, Ca.  Just as a run-through for the … meet in Las Vegas Oct 3-5. My results for the events were HT 56.20 (184-4),  shot put 12.91 (42-4 1/4), discus 40.04 (131-4), javelin 30.14 (98-11) and weight throw 21.54 (70-8) … I think that comes out to 4985 points … Actually these results were from the first 3 throws in each event.  I did throw all 6 throws and improved in hammer, discus and javelin.” The reason Ed mentions his scores are from the first three throws is because a throws pentathlon gives you three tries per event.

Ed continued in his note to me:

So I have my fingers crossed for some “luck”. In doing that meet, I injured my hamstring and tore something in my right calf .. . so I have been trying to recover enough to participate in the Las Vegas Meet.  I hope I can tape up and give it a good effort…   If not… you know, I love the preparation and anticipation of the sport as much as the actual competition so it will all be for the good no matter what the results.

For the record, Ed had these marks at the Nevada throws pentathlon:

Weight Pentathlon: #2 M70 Shot Put Seniors 5 Weight Pentathlon
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Name Age Team Finals Points
===================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 12.10m 39-08.50 869
2 Cahners, Bob M71 Naples, FL 11.43m 37-06.00 814
3 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 10.52m 34-06.25 739
4 East, Les M74 Victoria, BC, — 8.83m 28-11.75 600

Weight Pentathlon: #3 M70 Discus Throw Seniors 5 Weight Pentathlon
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Name Age Team Finals Points
===================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 38.50m 126-04 854
2 Cahners, Bob M71 Naples, FL 34.10m 111-10 738
3 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 30.67m 100-07 648
4 East, Les M74 Victoria, BC, — 25.94m 85-01 527

Weight Pentathlon: #1 M70 Hammer Throw Seniors 5 Weight Pentathlon
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Name Age Team Finals Points
===================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 51.01m 167-04 1131
2 Cahners, Bob M71 Naples, FL 34.61m 113-06 715
3 East, Les M74 Victoria, BC, — 30.10m 98-09 603
4 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 24.74m 81-02 470

Weight Pentathlon: #4 M70 Javelin Throw Seniors 5 Weight Pentathlon
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Name Age Team Finals Points
===================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 31.10m 102-00 622
2 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 24.35m 79-11 455
3 East, Les M74 Victoria, BC, — 22.11m 72-06 401
4 Cahners, Bob M71 Naples, FL 17.77m 58-04 297

Weight Pentathlon: #5 M70 Weight Throw Seniors 5 Weight Pentathlon
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Name Age Team Finals Points
=====================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 19.64m 64-05.25 1163
2 Cahners, Bob M71 Naples, FL 16.46m 54-00.00 952
3 East, Les M74 Victoria, BC, — 11.45m 37-06.75 624
4 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 10.91m 35-09.50 589

On top of this, Ed also competed in the five individual events (below). So by my calculation, Ed had 75 throws over two weekends.

M70 Shot Put Seniors 5
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Name Age Team Seed Finals
===================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 12.42m 40-09.00
2 Hurlbert, Ken M74 Bakersfield, CA 11.88m 38-11.75
3 Cahners, Bob M71 Naples, FL 11.28m 37-00.25
4 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 10.64m 34-11.00
5 Damschen, Ron M70 El Cajon, CA 8.57m 28-01.50
5 Baker, Kenneth M70 Henderson, NV 8.57m 28-01.50
5 Rider, Dennis M70 Henderson, NV 8.57m 28-01.50

M70 Discus Throw Seniors 5
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Name Age Team Seed Finals
===================================================
1 Pratt, Larry M72 Newark, DE 41.84m 137-03
2 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 38.46m 126-02
3 Damschen, Ron M70 El Cajon, CA 30.92m 101-05
4 East, Les M74 Victoria, BC, — 29.84m 97-11
5 Baker, Kenneth M70 Henderson, NV 27.52m 90-03
6 Rider, Dennis M70 Henderson, NV 25.87m 84-10
7 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 23.48m 77-00
8 Siegers, Dieter M73 Kloeln, Germany 20.43m 67-00

M70 Hammer Throw Seniors 5
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Name Age Team Seed Finals
===================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 55.13m 180-10
2 Mathews, George M70 Issaquah, WA 44.67m 146-07
3 Cahners, Bob M71 Naples, FL 37.94m 124-06
4 East, Les M74 Victoria, BC, — 31.75m 104-02
5 Burns, John M72 LaFayette, CA 27.27m 89-06
6 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 26.73m 87-08
7 Rider, Dennis M70 Henderson, NV 22.94m 75-03

M70 Javelin Throw Seniors 5
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Name Age Team Seed Finals
===================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 35.00m 114-10
2 Rider, Dennis M70 Henderson, NV 31.29m 102-08
3 Damschen, Ron M70 El Cajon, CA 29.90m 98-01
4 Baker, Kenneth M70 Henderson, NV 29.81m 97-10
5 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 22.36m 73-04

M70 Weight Throw Seniors 5
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Name Age Team Seed Finals
===================================================
1 Burke, Edward M73 Los Gatos, CA 21.58m 70-09.75
2 Mathews, George M70 Issaquah, WA 18.29m 60-00.25
3 Cahners, Bob M71 Naples, FL 18.08m 59-04.00
4 Soule, George M73 Longmont, CO 11.15m 36-07.00