W55 Linda Cohn, W60 Steekelenburg up national records
Linda Cohn, a 55-year-old javelin thrower, raised her own American record for the third time Saturday. She chucked the spear 39.03 meters (128-1) at the Southern California Association USATF Masters Championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California. (Complete results are here.) That beat the previous (but not yet ratified) W55 best of 38.58 (126-7) she threw at the Northridge Relays on March 15. The listed American W55 record is 28.08 (92-1) by LaTanya Glass at Hawaii masters nationals in 2005. Earlier, Southern California-based multi-eventer Annelies Steekelenburg, 60, set a Dutch national age-group record in the high jump of 1.38 (4-6 1/4) -- about an inch shy of the European W60 record.
Linda says her best mark came on her sixth attempt, saying she was inspired by watching fellow throwers Kathy Bergen, Karen Vaughn and Annelies get their longest throws on the final try.
Many other remarkable marks were made at the SCA meet.
W45 national champion Jai (pronounced Jay) Black of San Diego ran the 100 in a legal 12.97 and the 200 in a legal 25.91 -- both less than a half-second off the American age-group records by Phil Raschker (12.50 and 25.56).
NFL Hall of Famer James Lofton won the M50 200 and 400 with great times of 24.42 (into a 2.1 mps wind) and 53.17.
M55 James Broun of Florida, taking a side trip from the "TRACK Live!" TV show, ran the 100-meter hurdles in 15.51 M40 Laurent Birade won the 400 hurdles in 57.34 and Olympian Henry Andrade, 46, finished in a fine 61.37 on a gorgeous day with light winds and temps in the lows 80s.
Athlete of the Year Nolan Shaheed, 58, made a rare foray into the track 5000, clocking 16:48.77 on the Mondo track at Cerritos, about 20 seconds off the listed M55 American record of 16:27.1 by James O'Neil way back in 1981.
And your ever-immodest blogmaster, competing for the first time in a year (and seven months after ACL reconstruction surgery), ran the 100 in sub-15 and the 200 in sub-32 with a standing start. I'll share complete details of my sensational season debut in my Masters Athlete Daily blog on Tuesday.