W60 world record for 5000 held by three women at once?
Here’s a trivia question: Who holds the W60 world record for 5,000 meters? We’re talking the standard outdoor track 5K — none of this roadie nonsense. Easy, you say. Just saunter over to the WMA records page for women. Voila: It’s Marion Irvine, the legendary running nun from Northern California whose 19:14.8 mark turns 20 next month. But you would be wrong. The best W60 5K on record, noted a friend who wrote me yesterday, is the 19:04.03 by Britain’s Angela Copson on July 5, 2009, at the British Masters National Championships in Birmingham. (Results are here.) But my friend might be wrong, too. According to the latest European masters age-group records, the fleetest W60 runner for 3.1 miles is Germany’s Edeltraud Pohl, who clocked 18:59.44 on May 29, 1997. Say what?
The EVAA site has a world-record booger as of this writing.
Whenever I get confused about records, I have two backstops: mastersathletics.net and the deeply flawed by occasionally helpful Masters Age Records by former WMA records czar Peter Mundle.
First I consult Pete’s book, which lists single-age bests but hasn’t been updated for several years. Ah, there it is! 18:59.44 by Edeltraud Pohl. But wait! Edeltraud is listed as 59 — and the date of her performance is given as May 29, 1996 — not 1997 as the Eurovets claim.
OK, take a deep breath, Ken, and check again.
This time I look for all 5K citations to EP in MAR. And here’s what I find:
57 18:53.19 Edeltraud Pohl (GER) 2- 5-94
58 19:17.16 Edeltraud Pohl (GER) 8-27-94
59 18:59.44 Edeltraud Pohl (GER) 5-29-96
I’m bad with dates, so let’s look for some other marks.
In the 1500, Edeltraud holds these single-age record in Mundle’s book:
54 5:04.45 on 7-12-91
57 5:13.97 on 6-4-94
61 5:36.2 on 9-5-97
In the 3000, Edeltroud holds these single-age records:
54 10:56.76 on 6-5-91
57 11:06.97 on 5-25-94
59 11:20.06 on 5-14-96
In the 10,000, Edeltroud holds these single-age records:
55 37:47.95 on 5-6-92
59 39:18.58 on 6-19-96
61 41:38.00 on 8-30-97
Head still swimming, I dog-paddle over to the 5K all-time rankings at mastersatletics.net for some birth dates. And here’s what we find for Edeltraud: July 14, 1936.
So why does EVAA records guru Ivar Söderlind’s list EP as being 60 for a mark set when she was still 59? Oh, man. Don’t get me started about how Germans use Dec. 31 to establish age groups. Ivar normally is spot on, but this time he may be spot off. Or maybe the DOB is off at Martin Gasselberger’s mastersathletics.net. I’m beyond confused.
So I look for another backstop. I find one othe marathon rankings site of the Association of Road Racing Statisticians, which gives EP’s DOB as July 14, 1936.
OK, so back to Square One! Looks like Angela Copson has the 5K WR after all!
And not only that, I’m told she also ran the track 3K in 11:06.5 on August 16, 2009, at this inter-area meet in Solihull, breaking the listed WR of 11:20.22 by fellow Brit Janette Stevenson.
A quick check of indoor and outdoor 3K track records confirms that Angela is the real deal here as well. And she’s 62!
But why does it take more than an hour to search for a real world record?
Take a deep breath, Ken.
Tom Phillips took this shot of Angela during her 5K world record at Brit nationals.
One Response
Is it true that you aren’t allowed to base an employment decision on information obtained from these services? I’m pretty sure it mentions that in a lot of these websites terms and conditions. Something about the fact that the records might not be completely accurate, so you might be making a false judgement. I think these rules need to be made more clear, thoughts?
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