Britain’s Jo Pavey was lapped early in the WR 10K at the Rio Games, but her 15th-place time of 31:33.44 was historic as well — a WMA W40 world record. Jo turns 43 in September. How good was her mark? It would have beaten the men’s world record in 1884, also by a Briton (Walter George). Jo beat the listed W40 WR of 31:40.97 by Russia’s Alla Zhilyayeva in 2009. (The winner’s time of 29:17.45 would have been a men’s WR — in Emil Zátopek era — as recently as August 1950.) Jo said of the Almaz Ayana mark: “When I heard the times, I just couldn’t believe it. It’s so much faster than you could ever imagine anyone could run. I was aware how soon they lapped us. You hope not to get lapped at all, but to get lapped so early is really shocking. It was almost confusing. Everyone was running so fast you didn’t know who was in which lap.”

Momma Jo continued:

“It was the craziest race I’ve ever been in. It had 37 starters. I’ve never had that before. It was really surprising. I’m not going to be competitive with those times, even if I was younger.”

The 10,000m record set by Wang, who was the subject of numerous doping allegations, had not even come close to being beaten before Friday, and Pavey admitted she thought it was pretty safe.

“I never thought the Chinese record would go,” she said. “You don’t think of them as records really. So you don’t expect them to go.

“I don’t know. She seemed like she was ill before the race, coughing and stuff. Obviously it didn’t matter to her. I didn’t think that someone would go from the gun. I thought someone would push it from early on but not to produce a time like that. It is unbelievable. I don’t know whether to be pleased or not, to have been in that race.”

Pavey was asked if she hoped the race was clean. “It’s hard to know isn’t it? You can’t say anything unless you’ve got any proof. You’ve just got to admire performances until you know differently. Unfortunately the sport’s had a lot of dark days. Hopefully we can come through this. It’s great that we are providing a cleaner sport for the future. I can’t be one to suspect performances unless you’ve got proof. It’s a sad day when if anything good happens you have to suspect it.”

For Pavey, it is the end of an incredible Olympic story, although she has no plans to retire just yet. She wants to run in London next summer at the World Championships, by which time she will be 43. “I would have liked to have run a bit quicker but I gave it my best on the day,” she said. “Realistically, I am getting very, very old. Even so, the way training has gone I would have liked to have gone a bit quicker than that.

On the WMA site, Bridget Cushen of Britain highlighted other masters-age athletes in Rio:

Two Masters athletes finished in the first 10 in the men’s discus competition, one of the first finals to be decided in the Track & Field competition. M35 Gerd Kanton, Estonia, got 5th with a throw of 65.10m, Zoltan Kövágo, Hungary, finished 7th with 64.50m, down on his best this year of 67.39m and Lois M. Martinez, one of eleven Masters in the 48-strong track & field team from Spain, was 27th with 59.42m. Cleopatra Borel competing for Trinidad & Tobago finished 7th (18.37m) in the women’s Shot.

42-year old Jo Pavey, Great Britain & N. Ireland, had a courageous run in the women’s 10,000m to finish 17th in 31.33.44sec breaking the W40 31.40.97sec World Record set in 2009 by the 40-year old Russian Alla Zhilyayeve. W35 Geisa Aparecida, representing the host country, unfortunately failed to advance from her 4th place in Heat 8. 37-year old Chris Brown running for the Bahamas was also 4th (45.46sec) in his Heat and Kim Collins, St Kitts & Nevis qualified for the 100m semis in 10.18sec.

Bridget also posted a note on Inspirational Masters influence on the Olympics

Masters athletes who continue to train and compete in Track & Field in their home country and at international level are not only making an enormous contribution to health and welfare, but their example influence and encouraging their children to be physically active. At an International Conference on Obesity in Switzerland some years ago, statistics showed that children born to physically active parents tend not to become obese.

In Rio not only did we have Masters athletes representing their country in various events, but they actually won Olympic medals and competed with distinction. Active World and Regional Masters competitors watched their children/grandchildren become Olympians.

On the first two days the world Media and a packed 60,000-capacity stadium focused on the intriguing women’s heptathlon as the defending champion, Jessica Ennis-Hill representing Great Britain & Northern Ireland, lost, then regained the lead only to lose again as the seven disciplines progressed; the 21-year old Belgian, Nafissatou Thiam went on to win. Thiam’s mother, Daniéle Denisty, is the current European Masters Athletics W45 Heptathlon gold medallist. She scored a total of 5043pts to beat Ireland’s Geraldine Finnigan in Izmir in 2014. Ludwig Peetroons from Belgium Masters Athletics tells me he is not yet able to confirm whether Daniéle will be competing in Perth. She is now in the W50 age category.

Making her fourth appearance for CZE at the Olympics, 35-year old Barbora Špotakova, javelin gold medallist at the Beijing and London Olympics, won the bronze medal in Rio with a throw of 64.80m, She came to the European Masters Athletics Championships in Zittau, Germany, in 2012 to watch her mother Ludmila win the W60 javelin title.

W35 wins Spain’s first woman’s Olympic medal

After an exciting High Jump competition running late into the night on the penultimate day and with the starting height set at 1.88m, rising in 5cm increments until four women went on to clear 1.97m, it was 37-year old Masters athlete and defending champion, Ruth Beitia, who took the Olympic gold and become the oldest woman in history to win this event and the first Spanish woman to win an Olympic Track & Field medal. Medals being decided by the number of failed attempts, another Masters athlete in the field, Chaunte Lowe, USA, was so unlucky to have to settle for 4th.

It was a podium place also for 40-year-old Ivan Tsikhan from Belarus in the Hammer. He led briefly after the second round with a throw of 77.43m improving to 77.79m in the fifth round but a 78.68m throw from Nazarov from Tajikistan secured him the gold, his country’s first ever Olympic medal.

The Bahamas 4 x 400m relay team finished third in their fastest time this year (2.58.49sec) thanks to an excellent final leg from their 37-year old Masters athlete, Chris Brown, who became the first man in history to win four Olympic medals in the 4 x 400m, taking his total to two bronze, one silver and gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

The Masters in the gruelling 50km walk in weather conditions described by some as worse than Beijing, were not so fortunate. After leading the 80-strong field from 5km to reach the 30km mark in 2.11.29sec, the fastest man over this distance, 38-year old Yohann Diniz, France, began to suffer stomach problems that forced him to slow right down. He finished a courageous 8th in 3.46.43sec. Jesus Angel Garcia, Spain, the oldest man in the Olympics finished a very credible 20th in 3.54.29sec.

USA 5000m Olympic Trial winner, 41-year old Bernard Lagat lowered his own M40 5000m World Record finishing 5th in 13.06.78sec. The USA’s other 41-year old, Meb Keflezighi, was seen to stop during the marathon but came through to finish 20th in the 2.16.46sec.