New York, London see world indoor records in 200 (twice) and 60
I officially declare this the Week of the 200. I’m also happy to see that new world-record holders have times I can beat (barely). At the Armory in NYC, Kathy Bergen ran the deuce in 33.06, dashing the listed W75 WR of 34.53 by Canada’s Christa Bortignon in 2012. The meet was the USATF-sanctioned New York Open & Masters Indoor Track Championships, where Renee Shepherd finally got a kosher W50 WR in the 60 — 8.03 seconds (nipping Phil Raschker’s 8.05 from 1997) and Marisa Sutera Strange ran 3000 in 10:12.98, beating the listed W50 American record of 10:22.68 by Olympic legend Joan Samuelson in 2009. (See results here.) At Lee Valley in London, Charles Eugster smashed the minute barrier, going 55.48 to shave 2 seconds off American Orville Rogers’ listed M95 WR of 57.88 in 2013. “I’m over the moon,” Charles wrote on Facebook. “Thank you to everyone who has helped me achieve this.” Keep reading for more records.
Kathy (and husband Bert) are headed home to La Canada, California, where she’ll resume training for an outdoor season that includes Lyon worlds. “I hope to break the outdoor 100, 200 and high jump,” she tells me, crediting Eric Dixon as her sprint coach. “Aging up is a wonderful thing.”
Hep stars (from left) are Erika Pierce, Becky Connolly,
Christel Donley, Beverly Olson and Rita Hanscom.
Jerry scored 2487 in M85 (despite not getting marks in the 60 hurdles and 1000). And Christel added the W80 record to previous ARs in W70 and W75 with her 5183. (Event has no world records, since WMA doesn’t contest it.) Men’s results are here. Women’s results are here.
Down in Landover, Maryland, Jerry Bookin-Weiner reports on the weekend’s USATF East Regional Indoor Championships.
Jerry writes about the meet at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Center (site of the 2009 and 2013 indoor masters nationals):
Total number of entries was 215, which I think makes it the largest total of any regional indoor meet this year. Among the most notable results was Gloria Krug’s AR in the W80-84 Weight Throw; her 8.20m broke her own record of 8.03m set last year at the indoor nationals in Boston. She actually had two throws over the old record. A number of elite masters athletes used the meet as a tune up for the upcoming indoor nationals. Among them, in addition to Gloria, were sprint greats Lonnie Hooker, Oscar Peyton, Charlie Allie, Ty Brown (who also hurdles), and Larry Colbert; Alisa Harvey, Charmaine Roberts, and Nick Berra in the middle distances; Marcus Battle in the LJ and TJ; Bruce McBarnette in the HJ; Shawn Robinson, Bob Cedrone, and Bob Cahners in the throws; and M90 race walker Charlie Matt.
Results from Landover are here.
Congrats to all the record-breakers over the weekend, including PRs and season bests!
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Kathy Bergen is the real thing, and we can all just sit back and watch her re-write all of the 75-79 records. Christel Donley also set a new world best in the 60mH with her new PR, setting up a great showdown in Winston Salem in that event.
“Marisa Sutera Strange is Fabulous” — that’s the subhead I used in National Masters News to describe her winning race at January’s Hartshorne Mile at Cornell. There she ran 5:20.26, but this time she AVERAGED 5:28.83 per mile in setting an American indoor record for W50 in the 3000. Stunning.
Kathy Bergen and Renee Shepherd — two of the “Fab Four” in the history of women’s masters sprinting in the United States, at least in my opinion. The other two? Phil Raschker and Irene Obera. Yes, we are talking about some truly great names.
Congratulations again, Kathy.
East Region Championships saw at least one new world record (at least, according to the WMA list of such I’m looking at): M70 Ty Brown’s 9.65 in 60h; Ty knocked of Rolf Geese’s 2014 mark of 9.76. No surprise, really: Ty holds the M65 record in this event, too.
Also competing at East was Guy Whidden (M90 Shot). Earlier – 71 years earlier – G.I. Guy parachuted into France on D-Day and ‘shot’ Nazi butt.
To really appreciate Kathy’s speed one has to take a look at the world record progression pages in Wikipedia. Before I broke the 60m WR in 2012, the W75 record was 10.85. Kathy took over a second off
that record, absolutely fabulous! The 200m indoor record was 37.19 when I broke it in 2012, Kathy took over 4 seconds off that record. I cannot wait to see by how much she will demolish my 100 and 200m
outdoor records this summer. Both records were from 1997, at 15.91 and 34.40, when I broke them in 2013. So, there is no doubt in my mind that Kathy will amaze us some more this summer.
Keep inspiring us all, Kathy!
Jeff Watry, meet director of the Kenosha hep, reports these American records:
M35 Mike Kuoppamki 4868
M60 Doug Osland 5393 (note: Emil Pawlik 5657 from 99 at Nationals – can we asterisk?)
M85 Jerry Donley 2487 (our first M85 male)
W40 Erika Pierce 4286 ( she can hurdle – 9.44)
W45 Rebecca Connolly 4196 (breaks her record from last year)
W80 Christel Donley 5183 (might have got her hurdle WR and AR but not posted so will need to search)
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