Charles Austin named USATF Athlete of the Week for M45 WR

Wanna be USATF Athlete of the Week? All you need is two things — a world record and name recognition. So it went with Olympic champ Charles Austin, whose 2.05 (6-8 3.4) world record in the M45 high jump over the weekend got the attention of the Mother Ship in Indy. It also helps that USATF open nationals start this week, and last weekend was relatively fallow on the elite level. So the window of opportunity opened. Congrats to Charles. From the official announcement: on AoY: “The three-time Olympian (1992, 1996, 2000) is the current American high jump record holder with a 7-10.05 (1991) and current Olympic high jump record holder 7-10 (1996). Austin’s other accomplishments include a 1st place finish in his first World Outdoor Championships in 1991, 1st place in 2003 World Indoor Championships and 1st place in 2003 USA Indoor Championships.”