Kudos from the Kiwi: David Sirl hails Tony Young WR
A few days after Tony Young broke David Sirl's M45 world record in the mile, I wrote to Athletics New Zealand, asking if David were around to react to the 4:16.09. About a week later, I got a note from David himself! The miracle of email. David wrote: "Congratulations Tony Young of Seattle for breaking the world record in the M45 mile. Looking at the video it is obvious he can run a lot faster, perhaps a few fast 800s . . . will help him to achieve this!"
David also responded to a series of questions.
Here's what he shared:
I (set) the world record (4.16.75) at the Masters/Veteran World Athletic Champs in Melbourne, Australia in 1987. The mile race was run on the last day and the field contained different athletes from Europe, Australasia and North America. . . . I was very pleased to win in Melbourne the double 800m/1500m ( 4m 1s), the latter breaking the world record held by a West German athlete.David, about 65 now, apparently doesn't race anymore (due to his weakened heart). But his heart still belongs to track. He said he learned of Tony's M45 mile record via my "communique."
As a master runner I won the 800 and 1500 in Melbourne. I broke the world mile records for both M47 and M49 -- my time for M49 was 4m 27.1s. I also won the New Zealand Cross Country Champs and Road Champs over 10km. I also ran 2hr 22m for the marathon at age 40. In 1996, I had a heart attack when aged 53, within minutes of finishing the Brisbane Half-Marathon in 74 mins, the only compensation being that in my last race I won my age group!
My best times (as an elite athlete) were:
800m 1.50.4
1500m 3.41.8
1 Mile 4.01
5000m 13.59
10,000 29.20
Marathon 2.22
I represented New Zealand for 12 years between 1969 and 1980 and was in the N.Z. Cross Country team that won the World Cross Country Champs in Morocco in 1975 ( the team included (Walker, Robertson, Sirl, Rose, Dixon, Quax, Foster).
I have worked (still!) for a good old American company for the past 30 years as a company representative for Colgate Palmolive.
I asked David what advice he might offer Tony, and he said: "More of the same! Don't forget the eg speed so that you can race faster. Great effort -- please pass on my congratulations to Tony."
I did.
And Tony replied: "Mr. Sirl sounds like a great guy with an impressive resume. I loved the names on his New Zealand XC team!"
Comments
wow, what is the conversion of his 1500m time? assuming he ran that at age 40+ that is incredible
Posted by: tbuffolano | June 14, 2008 6:49 AM