Brit labeled the ‘world’s fastest sprinter over 50’ off his WMA victory
Pat Logan wears the same uniform colors as countryman Roger Bannister.
Everyone knows it’s obligatory to bite your medal, lest you offend Tradition.
About Ken Stone
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
Ken Stone
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24 Responses
Knowing Pat well, I’d imagine he’d be the first to be embarrassed by stupid news reportage like this.
Yes, someone should be embarrassed. Congratulations to him on being world champion.
Ken why is this relevant, yes he may not have ran the fastest time of anyone last year, but he went to Brazil competed and won, why not just celebrate the positives and not dwell on the negatives, any publicity for our sport is good. Pat is a great guy and I for one am thrilled for him.
I would have to agree with Allan. Can’t we just stay on the positive side.
Great guy Mr. Logan…..Congrats
Now time to hit the mountain
Mike Sullivan
I agree..he is the World Masters Champ.
98% of us would dream to be such.
Silly news reporting. Gotta make the effort and travel to the world champs to be declared the fastest. The other folks on this reporter’s list didn’t make the time or the commitment to travel to Brazil. This is not Pat Logan’s fault. Congrats Pat Logan, you’re the world champ!
Rather churlish reportage if I may say so (and that’s being quite kind). Ignoring the fact that Mr Barnwell is a known drugs cheat so shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as clean athletes like Pat, the issue is simple…you go to a champs…compete under championship conditions over several rounds against whoever shows up and the best man wins. That’s the essence of championship competition. Pat is a championship performer and a worthy world champion.
Pat is one of the nicest guys in masters athletics!….and well done to him for being there and winning!…You’ve got to be in it to win it!..Most of the events could’ve been won by someone else who wasn’t there!….No one can take that title away from Pat or anyone else who won on the day, World Masters Champion!….well done Pat. Until the IOC and the IAAF support masters athletics fully it will only then that our national governing bodies send their best and selected athletes to major backed championships!…I hope it happens in my lifetime, but it will happen!
Thanks everyone for your support. For me personally, athletics is about maintaining good times rather than bragging rights. This was just an article in my local free newspaper, put out by the company that allows me access to their track facility.
I appreciate that I merely happened to be the fastest across the line in the final in Porto Alegre. In truth, any one of the first four could have won that race on the day. Many more could have claimed the title had they had the health, wealth and inclination to get out to Brazil.
I would agree that all the names mentioned have a good claim to the title and I would have added Willie Gault to the list.
Hopefully these guys will be in Budapest in March and we can all do our talking on the track. Have a great winter. Pat.
Ranking list do not show the full picture , i have raced and beat guys in major championships who have ran faster than me before the champs .to me its all about winning major champs and dealing with the pressure…so Congrats to my Good Friend Mr Logan
Well done Pat !! How dare they even mention the name of Barnwell in the same atricle as you. He may have run faster but no mention is made of the fact that he is STILL living off the gains he made when he was taking PEDs. You have achieved your results by hard work alone. A privelage to know you.
At end of the day Pat is World Champion and that’s what really matters. The guy won a World title and it’s problem but yet you have drug cheat winning titles which is bad for our sport and no one seems to address that. So leave Pat alone, he’s inspring and he’s leading by example. How many people in their 50s can do what did?
Nuff respect to Pat Logan.
Apologies for my last sentence I meant to say. How many people in their 50s can do what Pat did?
I suppose we all should just be happy that a major newspaper is even aware of Masters Track and Field.
I agree that we should all stay positive about our sport as much as possible, but it is Ken’s job to “stir the pot” a bit.
I feel it is important to list the actual marks of others with faster times as relevant facts. This in no way should be construed as insulting to Pat Logan. He is indeed the World Champion and he won with an excellent time in Brazil.
Anyone who has competed on the World Championship Stage,knows how difficult it is to run your best and to bring home Gold.
It is more than just fast times that help one to win at the Worlds. It take training, focus, courage and determination while competing under a great deal of mental and physical stress to accomplish one’s goals.
Those who succeed, should rightly bask in the glow of victory and in many cases, of making a World final after some grueling prelims and semis.
Let’s celebrate all our Medal performances and in addition, all who had great times in other competitions but were unable to attend the World Championships.
We are all in this together and a victory for any Masters Athlete is one for all of us.
As they say in OZ…Good on ya Pat Logan, Good on ya Lonnie Hooker ( this guy represents the best in all of us )and by the way Allen Tissenbaum, hope you are healed up from that nasty injury at Nationals…. You are an awesome force on the track and a joy to watch sprinting down the 100m straightaway.
Let’s get back to it this Indoor season….hope to see you all there in Boston for Nationals in March
Got to be there to win it. WMA or Huntsman’s don’t matter. You can be ranked #1 but you have to be there to win a title. Good job Logan.
Lighten up folks . All Ken said was , unlike the Olympics where all the best attend and compete ,that is simply not true in W.M.A. Therefore the W.M.A. champion is not necessarily the worlds fastest . No slight intended .
First, congratulations to Pat Logan and all other medal winners at WMA-Porto Alegre.
Thanks to Ken for raising an issue not much discussed in masters track and field. Who should be considered the World’s fastest masters sprinter?
1. Definition. Age groups for WMA start at 35. Age groups for the World Masters Games starts at 30. Should 30 be the bottom cutoff rather than 50?
2. Age-graded. Should the title of World’s fastest masters sprinter be bestowed based on the age-grade factors?
3. Timeframe. Is the title of World’s fastest masters sprinter up for grabs each year? Obviously the World’s fastest masters sprinter is the world age-group world record holder. But T&F seems to have no trouble anointing the title of World’s greatest athlete to the winner of the Olympic Decathlon, regardless of whether a world record is set or whether a better score was made by others in other meets. In fact, the World’s greatest athlete as determined by the Olympics seems to last four years until the next Olympics.
4. Meets. As noted above, the title of World’s greatest athlete is the winner of the Olympic Decathlon, just as the title of Word’s fastest sprinter seems to refer to the winner of the Olympic 100m.
There is some parallelism between Masters and Open T&F. Open T&F has the Olympics every four years and the World Championship T&F meet every two years. Similarly, masters have the World Masters Games every four years and the Masters World T&F field meet every two years. So strictly speaking, the titles of World’s greatest Masters Athlete should be given to the winner of the WMGames decathlon (highest score of all age groups, as scores are already age-graded) and the title of World’s Fastest Sprinter to the winner of the WMGames 100m after age grading the results.
5. Otherwise, if you want to know who the world’s fastest sprinters are for any year, go to the World masters rankings:
http://www.mastersathletics.net/
P.S. What ever happened to my suggestion for posters to identify yourself by agegroup and location?
If you look at all time best from Pat, then it’s amazing what he is doing these last years. Well done Patrick, great performance.
I’ll end the debate once and for all. I’m the world’s fastest sprinter over 50. (I just haven’t found the venue to prove it.)
In the open class winners of the main championships mostly are the fastest (or nearly fastest) in rankings too, but in our sport quite often those are different athletes and the measured difference in centimeters or seconds can be quite big. The newspaper just thought it was like in the open class and used ‘world’s fastest’ as a synonym for ‘world champion’. That’s all.
We know there can be a difference, but the champ is the champ.
I agree with David E. Ortman, which would make me the world’s fastest M50 sprinter. 😉
Congrats, Pat! I would have loved to line up beside you in that final but time, location and $$$ prevented such from happening. Stay healthy and maybe we can do next season. Peace
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