Bill Collins begins assault on M55 record book
Bill Collins apparently has set his first M55 world record — clocking 7.47 seconds for 60 meters today at an indoor meet in Houston. That beats the listed WR of 7.51 by Germany’s Manfred Koch in 2003. In the same meet, fellow Texan Bobby Whilden was timed in 8.22 — equaling the listed M70 world indoor record by Germany’s Bruno Kimmel set two years ago at the first world masters indoor championships in Sindelfingen, Germany.
These are the posted results:
Mixed 60 Meter Dash Masters
1 Bill Collins Houston Elite 7.47 2
2 Mark Hastings unattached 8.04 2
3 Bobby Whilden Houston Elite 8.22 1
3 Rick Riddle Houston Elite 8.22 2
5 Terry Helton unattached 8.48 2
6 Don Danssan unattached 8.63 1
7 Wayne Bennett Dallas Masters 8.74 1
8 Cyrel Foote Houston Elite 9.10 2
9 Joe Summerlin Houston Elite 9.39 1
10 Jena Vander Cruysesen unattached 9.63 1
In the 200 at the same meet, Bill ran 24.38 — just a few strides off the listed M55 world indoor record of 24.09 by Stephen Robbins. Collins has a shot this season as being the oldest man under 24 indoors.
Bill still has some business to attend to — going for at least three golds at the second world masters indoor championships, in Linz, Austria. He’s entered in the 60, 200 and 400 (not just the 60 as I erringly posted a while back).
I’ve also learned, sadly, that Dr. Stephen Peters of Britain — still M50 but a major rival to Bill’s records — won’t compete in Linz because of obligations to the British team going to Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games, which begin March 15 — the same start date as the Linz meet.
Peters is a team shrink, I think.
