Brits sweep Beijing masters exhibition races; Yanks 4th and 5th
Sarah Louise wins 400 at IAAF worlds.
Here are basic results from Saturday:
BIB ATHLETE COUNTRY MARK
1 1106 David HEATH GBR GBR 2:00.92
2 1101 Gunnar Rune DURÉN SWE SWE 2:03.41
3 1102 Michael SHERAR CAN CAN 2:03.61
4 1107 Anselm LEBOURNE USA USA 2:03.75
5 1110 Benoït ZAVATTERO FRA FRA 2:04.47
6 1105 Peter OBERLIESSEN GER GER 2:05.08
7 1108 Allan Francis COOK AUS AUS 2:05.59
8 1104 Giuseppe ROMEO ITA ITA 2:07.32
9 1109 Chunsheng WANG CHN CHN 2:08.78
10 1103 Paul George OSLAND CAN CAN 2:10.60POS BIB ATHLETE COUNTRY MARK REACTION TIME
1 1006 Sarah Louise READ CAYTON GBR GBR 1:00.05 0.216
2 1005 Virginia Corinne MITCHELL GBR GBR 1:00.81 0.159
3 1008 Elizabeth Gail WILSON NZL NZL 1:02.54 0.210
4 1002 Julie Anne FORSTER AUS AUS 1:02.86 0.197
5 1009 Renee HENDERSON USA USA 1:03.88 0.194
6 1003 Gianna MOGENTALE AUS AUS 1:04.96 0.213
7 1007 Yukiko USUI JPN JPN 1:05.34 0.224
8 1001 Mayka Emmi GAROGLIO ARG ARG 1:06.10 0.169
9 1004 Xiuju GUO CHN CHN 1:10.51 0.291
Getty Photos covered masters races well. Here’s David Heath leading 800.
28 Responses
USATF’s Christa Mann collected these quotes after races:
Masters Men 800m
Anselm LeBourne
“This was a great race for me. Coming to Beijing, I’m the oldest guy in the race. I’m 56. All the other guys are 50, 51, so they have a good half decade on me. But
that’s okay. I ran 2.03.75. Its the end of the season, it’s been a long, long season
This experience is the best experience ever. I’ve learned so much coming to the World Championships. I want to volunteer now, I want to be part of USATF. I really
want to put masters on high. I’d like to elevate masters, I want people to understand 56 is not a death sentence. 51, 52 is not a death sentence. We’ve just begun.â€
Masters 400m Women
Renee Henderson
“First off, as much as I hate the 400, as much as I wanted to be a part of this whole Masters-Beijing IAAF movement, it was such an opportunity to be here. So, I just
dug in and felt the pain to run the 400. That is not a fun race. I wanted to do a lot better. I had a calf cramp, Anselm tried to rub it out. And someone from the USATF sent a banana back to the call room for me. I had to start out of blocks on my heel, so
my calf wouldn’t cramp up. I wasn’t able to go as fast as I wanted to, this was my slowest time. But when you’re here, you have to do what you have to do, you have to do your best and that’s what I did today.
It (the experience) was so wonderful. First of all, being on the same warm-up track as Allyson Felix; I was talking with Christian Taylor. You keep having these constant
out of body experiences. Oh my God, they just won a gold medal in the World Championships and they’re talking to me. It was wonderful, just being here up close and personal.â€
So many amazing masters performances this season.
3:43.99 Whiteman 1500, best time in 4 seasons since his record in (2012).
Video of the women’s 400:
http://youtu.be/u6udtioKbLg
Thanks for that video, Ken. Anyone seen video of the men’s race?
In the UK, the tv coverage of these events was scandalous. The YouTube video of the 400 doesn’t include the totally disrespectful comments made on air by Eurosport’s commentator (who is a former international athlete). These were along the lines of “I don’t know why we’re bothering to show you this, etc”. A few minutes later, the channel unexpectedly failed to show the men’s 800.
The BBC’s Beijing coverage was on air when these races took place. Neither was shown, nor even mentioned. All we got was studio chat about action from the day before. BBC Sport has been very vocally criticised on social media for this today.
So, the suits from WMA got their all-expenses paid vacation in China, and most of the world has again failed to see the worlds top Masters in action. That’s sad, but I don’t think I’m completely surprised.
Dutch internet streams showed both races. But the commentator sounded bored, he even did not know it were 50 and 55 athletes, could have known the world records for this age etcetera.
Sad to invite Masters to the World Champioship and then neglect all their wonderful Performances and efforts.
Glad to see “The Jet” represent, even though she was nowhere near 100%. Anselm ran a wonderful race. I wish I could have called the two events either as the stadium announcer or on TV.
I can assure you, I would have “juiced up” both of these races, which would not have been hard to do. After all, I would simply have been responding to the excitement generated by the athletes.
I do like what IAAF does on its press/news write-ups about world records:
*Subject to the usual ratification procedures
http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-championships/15th-iaaf-world-championships-4875/news/report/men/decathlon/1500-metres
If USATF/WMA were to asterisk AR/WR better marks as pending it might save a lot of confusion.
To Anselm : remember we met in Lyon in the TIC. Congrat for your great race in Beijing ! Just to say that not all the other guys are 50,51 : Benoît Zavattero (FRA) is 55. See you next time !
Did the Masters top 3 get medals in Bejing? If so, they weren’t listed on any masters list. Ditto what Tom Phillips said about the Eurosports coverage… commentator apologized to viewers for airing the women’s masters 400m … instead of a few decathlon javelin throws, which they could have shown on replay.
CBC (Canadian station) posted video of men’s 800, but it’s “currently unavailable.” Not sure when we’ll see it.
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Sports/Top+Stories/ID/2674573274/
In any case, Canadian masters celebrated bronze-medal finish:
http://canadianmasters.ca/cmaa-news/mike-sherar-finishes-third-in-the-masters-800m-in-beijing/
I did not see the event live on CBC but watched it later. The video showed only the last lap but the commentary was brilliant and made the race exciting. Ironically the commentator was Steve Ovett who always, to me, does a great job.
Bill McIlwaine
Great tidbit on Seb Coe after masters 800:
http://www.athleticsweekly.com/featured/british-duo-claim-masters-wins-in-beijing-33072/
The winners received their awards from incoming IAAF president Seb Coe, who when asked why he wasn’t running himself, said: “I’m a bit slow for that now!â€
So much for the “world wide web”. The Canadian hosts have put a “geographic restriction” on that 800m clip.
Tom, I take issue with your comment ‘So, the suits from WMA got their all-expenses paid vacation in China.’ First, they are not all ‘suits’ – I know at least one ”blazer.’ Then, the WMA officers did a real good job in getting these Masters demonstration events into the Beijing World Championships. Give WMA credit for that.
Tony, all joking aside, I am left wondering what the point of the exercise was. The result was scant tv coverage, and an international athlete badmouthing masters athletics on public tv. With hindsight, I believe WMA could have used their energies and our money better.
Hope you are recovered from whatever kept you away from Lyon.
Thanks Tom. I’ll be back. See you around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXy8sfxPloI
Both races were covered with great respect and enthusiasm on the IAAF Live Stream YouTube channel by an expert commentary team that included Steve Ovett and Katharine Merry. Check it out on YouTube on the Day 8 Evening Session video the women’s 400 starts @40.45 and the men’s 800 @55.05.
Thanks, Ben Ami! Your link shows video of men’s 800 masters at Beijing:
https://youtu.be/qXy8sfxPloI
Sadly, the IAAF appear, in their infinite wisdom, to have put geographic restrictions on who can see the YouTube videos of their Live Stream. So, even though Brits won both Masters races, the videos cannot currently be viewed in Britain. That’s just inept, imo. Nevertheless, thanks Ben Ami for recording the 800 direct off your tv screen.
On behalf of WMA I would be very grateful if any of your international readers would let us know if the Masters races were televised, or reported on in any format in their country.
I had been lobbying the BBC, who had sole TV Rights in Britain, since May. Emailing their Head of Sport again on the morning of the races in Beijing. He responded after the races: “If you tweet the news to me we will re-tweet so that more people know.” Several of our members have expressed their disappointment at the BBC on Social Media. I am not a Eurosport viewer, but would be grateful if any viewer has a record of what was said by their Commentator (particularly during the women’s 400m) as the British Masters will be writing to both Channels.
Bridget,
I’ve e-mailed you. I’ve not yet found anyone with video coverage from Eurosport of what Tim Hutchings said in the lead up to the W50 400m in Beijing, but it was basically along the lines of “I really don’t know why we are bothering to show you this when there is decathlon javelin we could be showing. Masters athletes have their own championships.”
Tom
WMA on Monday posted details of the Beijing 400/800:
http://www.world-masters-athletics.org/news/570-fantastic-masters-400800m-in-beijing
http://www.world-masters-athletics.org/news/571-birds-nest-welcomes-the-masters
At last, video of the Men’s 800m that wasn’t shot off a Danish tv screen: Steve Ovett commentating, too: https://www.youtube.com/embed/sqGewc4xcgE
Thanks, Tom! I’ve embedded video in the main post. Great coverage. And watch Anselm go for it on last lap!
Congrats to all who participated… what an honor. Would have been nice to see medals and anthems for the winners.
Great job, Anselm! Always good to see you running well.
And congrats on your whole season, which was nothing less than stellar.
Hope to see you at the starting line sometime soon.
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