Blank buries Bradstock, claims M45 WR in javelin
Germany’s Peter Blank didn’t want fellow European-born spearchucker Roald Bradstock to have all the fun. Yesterday in Rehlingen, Germany, Peter tossed the javelin 77.15 meters (253-1) to take the M45 world record from Roald, who threw a puny 71.75 (235-4) just nine days earlier. Peter turned 45 on April 10 — 14 days before Roald. According to a message board posting, where the record was spotted by Chuck Greene, Peter’s series was 73.53 (241-2), 73.11 (239-10) 76.91 (252-3), 76.13 (249-9) and then his monster 77.15. So Peter buried Roald’s record five times! Official results from Rehlingen are posted here.
I sent Roald a note on the new record, and his sense of humor shined through.
Roald replied (with an email whose subject line was “speaking from the grave…”):
Records are meant to be broken — but I would liked to have had a few more days, or even hours, minutes. In 1981, before I came to the USA when I was 19, I was ranked second in the world as a junior to some East German called Uwe Hohn! In my late 20s and early 30s I was ranked behind Hill and Backley in Britain. Last year as a 44-year-old I was second in the world as a master to some guy called Jan Zelezny!
I guess my role in life is always to play second fiddle — but you got to admit those are some pretty good fiddle players to playing second string too? Well done, Peter. I’ll have to see how much more I can muster now — I just need to take a quick nap first.
One Response
dear Ken,
in reaction to your question who’s doing the ranking thing. The Dutch do at: http://www.djmorris.dds.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=59
The Belgians do at: http://194.7.242.105/openleren/MastersOut2007/outdoor2007.aspx
Kind regards,
Kay Schaafsma (NL)
June 1, 2007
Germany posts its own masters seasonal rankings
Gerd M?ɬ?hle of Lower Saxony, a German state, has posted 2007 outdoor rankings for age groups M30 to M80 and W30 to W65. They’re not for all of Germany, though. Still, it’s nice to see other countries sharing top marks in advance of the Riccione world meet in September. Any other nations doing the rankings thing? Lemme know. (The official USATF rankings are at mastersrankings.com, of course.)
Posted by Ken Stone on June 1, 2007 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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