Anselm LeBourne claims M55 WR in 1500 — at sanctioned meet
Anselm in NJ.
Anselm posted these results on Facebook. He’s not really in M35 age group.
About Ken Stone
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
Ken Stone
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17 Responses
Anselm is definitely a current member of the Masters Hall of Fame, and he deserves to be there. Why? He ranks up there at the very top among the middle-distance men I’ve announced, and I’ve announced quite a few.
I’ve had the pleasure of calling races for The Great Earl Fee, Ed Whitlock, Nolan Shaheed, and several others at that level (too busy to list them here), and Anselm ranks up there with them.
Regarding the failure to get a sanction for Anselm’s record meet last summer, the application for a sanction doesn’t even provide a place to list the officials, the identity of the FAT crew, etc. You can have very poor officials and no FAT and still get a sanction.
As just one example, I went to a sanctioned meet in which a long jump official thought that hitting the takeoff board was a foul. I would never look to the presence or absence of a sanction to judge the quality of a meet.
Sorry for HOF flub, Peter. I’ve corrected the post.
You’re forgiven, Ken.
Fantastic performance by Anselm and certainly should be recognized as the new world and American record, but it makes me wonder about the requirement of having 3 people in the field to have a record approved. Does the field need to be runners of the same age group? Does the field need to be masters runners of any age? Since Anselm ran in the heat with open runners, does that somehow constitute pace setting for him?
In my book, if he can run with open level runners, and get that kind of time, he deserves the record hands down. Just makes me wonder about some of the arcane rules and regulations surrounding masters track and field.
Congrats to Anselm on a world class performance.
Ken, that’s another twist. It’s never about the same age group; you have to have a field that’s 3 or more, and they have to be bona fide competitors.
However, as perhaps you’re indicating, the age of the other runners could be important in terms of the performance by the masters runner. I do not know of any exception in which the presence of open runners would upset things, but I am not completely sure. I doubt it.
I do know that we had multiple hurdle races at Winston-Salem nationals with 2 competitors, and thus any national/world records set in those events would have been immediately dismissed, nationals or not.
I should point out that in more than 3 decades in masters T&F I have never been told by a woman in the hammer or weight throw, for example, or by a woman of any age or a man 70+ in the hurdles, that competing against just one other person made them throw farther or hurdle faster.
To be blunt, the rule requiring 3 or more competitors for a record is discriminatory on two bases: age and sex.
Pete, I was just playing devil’s advocate with regard to some of the stringent requirements in setting a masters record (something I’ll never have to worry about). Somehow I doubt open track and field performers have to go through the same procedures to get a record ratified. The rule should be modified as athletes age, to promote inclusion, as well as the reality of smaller fields in some events.
I don’t think pacesetting should be a factor, since in open track and field, many high profile races outside of major championships, employ pacesetters as an aid towards setting a record. But at the same time, aren’t female athletes in road races penalized if they have a male pacesetter?
In looking at the results from the meet, it appears they split the field into 3 heats by seed time. Anselm ran in the fastest seed group and had the 3rd fastest time among all competitors, open and masters. That is some kind of running at age 55!! If he had run with just masters runners, he would have lapped many in the field once or twice for sure.
Congratulations Anselm! You’re off to a great start in 2015.
I ran in this meet. I must first congratulate Mr. LeBourne for his amazing race, but I also wish to thank him for not entering the M55 800m, thereby allowing me to win with a very slow time–bad weather for training and too many Christmas and New Year’s parties and dinners. Jan. 11 is much too early for a championship meet; we need time to run that food off!
The heats in all events were indeed seeded by time, not age groups. I suppose the thinking is that this makes for more competitive heats, although there is something to be said for running head-to-head against your age-group competitors; imagine if you found out that a guy in your age group edged you in the following heat by, say, .05 seconds. I, for one, would be annoyed, thinking that if I were in the same heat I would have somehow found the extra .06 to beat him.
I assume that the 3 competitors rule is intended to discourage record attempts that are in effect time trials, so that the would-be record breaker is exposed to the risks of actually racing (e.g., going out too fast and getting passed at the end, getting spiked at the start or tripped at the break line). When it comes to Masters, however, with the possible exception of Nationals and Worlds, every race run by Mr. LeBourne or any other world record contender against his age group peers is effectively a time trial, because he’s probably 3 seconds ahead of the field within the first 30m of the race, and that gap will increase exponentially. For that reason, maybe the 3 competitors rule should be relaxed for Masters runners.
Other worldly!
Bravo and whoa!
Nice work A… i see you are slowing down some since we raced together in Spain 10 years ago. 🙂 Only wish I was slowing down as little as you are. Well done my friend. Well done. KP
meet was advertised as a combined open and masters championship, and seeded as such. made the raceing more fun for sure. Rene Henderson set wr also I apologise she is recently married , name…
I don’t mean to hijack a post about Anselm’s WR. Just wanted to mention that I’ve been married for 15 years. I only started using my married name recently. (I’d hate for my husband to read that I was recently married lol!) And yes, I managed to knock another 100th off the WR with an 8.02 at the NJ Championships. Shout out to Tony who was the starter for my 8.03 in December. Then again on Sunday for both my race and Anselm’s race!
Glad to hear, Tony, that Renee “The Jet” Shepherd set a world mark in the meet. I wonder whether it was in the 60 or 200; I doubt it was in the 400.
Congratulations Anselm!
Results link:
http://www.usatfnj.org/tf/1-11-15%20USATF.htm
Congrats to Renee!
Is Anselm’s time a world indoor record for 1500m ?
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