Records soar and fall haphazardly
Masters records continue to flow fast and furious — and all fouled up. Beside’s Tony Young’s brilliant 4:08.60 at age 40 on Jan. 18, we’ve also learned about M55 Harry Nolan of Shore AC running a 4:50.8 mile a few days earlier in New York. But you can’t trust everything you read. Here’s how Runner’s World Online reported the Nolan run: “Masters Mile Record: New Jerseyan Harry Nolan set a new 55-59 U.S. Age-group indoor record and world best of 4:50.8 for the mile at last week’s Thursday Night At The Races at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York. Nolan surpassed the former standard of 4:52.8 set by Vic Heckler of Chicago.” How confused are we? Let us count the ways.
First I gotta say: All I know about records is what’s posted at “official” sites. The American indoor M55 mile record – as listed by National Masters News — is 4:53.14 by Dan Conway of Minnesota at age 56 on 2-25-95. But the WMA site lists the M55 world indoor mile record as 4:50.22 by Victor Heckler of America at age 56 on 12-19-98! National Masters News also lists world indoor records. And here it agrees with WMA and disagrees with itself: M55 4:50.22 Victor Heckler (USA) 56 12-19-98. So an American’s world record is faster than a different American’s USA record? Got that?
Maybe the Germans have their records straight. Annette’s Seite reports that Wolfgang Ritte, who dominated the WMA world meets in the 1990s, turned 50 on January 7, 2003, and soon after cleared 4.60 meters (15 feet, 1 inch) in the M50 pole vault at a Rhine championships. That shattered the listed world indoor record of 4.30 (14-1 1/4) by American Wayne Lambert, 54, in 2001, and a pending 4.32 by American Vincent Struble, 50, in 2002. And then Ritter barely missed 4.70 (15-5), a mark he made just last season.
The 4.60 also surpasses the listed outdoor world M50 pole vault record of 4.57 (15-0) by American Jerry Cash at age 51 on 7-8-00!
My translation is poor, but we’re told that Wolfgang’s son Thomas cleared 4.90 (16-0 3.4) at the same meet and his daughter Christina beat his W45 wife Ute 3.40 to 2.70!
The family that vaults together stays together.
The records that stay together fall together.
