Christel Donley adds W75 world record in heptathlon to collection
Colorado’s Christel Donley, the W75 multi-eventer who slays every record in her path, did it again over the weekend at the USATF National Combined Events Championships in Joplin, Missouri. She scored 5,416 points in the heptathlon, beating the listed W75 WR of 4,970 by fellow Yank Leonore McDaniels in 2003. On the men’s side, Chris Bates beat the listed M45 American decathlon record by scoring 7308 points. But the USATF records page lists a pending record of 7421 by Rex Harvey set way back in 1991. (What’s up with that? Maybe the new tables elevated Rex’s old score over the 7001 mark by Ken Ellis at Puerto Rico worlds in 2003.) Also notable was the 6878 win by M50 Michael Janusey — 144 points short of the American record. Results of the men’s decs are here. Results of women’s dec are here. Hep results are still to come.

Decathlon competitors at Southwest Missouri State University included (from left) Kay Glynn, Mary Trotto, Caryl Senn-Griffiths and Claire Overstake.
Caryl Senn-Griffiths, opting for the women’s decathlon, beat the listed W45 American record of 4390 points by a whopping 1,732 points. Caryl tallied 6122 with the help of big scores in the 100 (14.19 for 761 points), 80-meter hurdles (13.82 for 830 points) and 1.40/4-7 high jump (759 points).
Visiting Brits also competed (in an annual team challenge), including Hazel Barker, who won the W50 hep with 4,464 points. Mary Dyke won the W45 hep with 2,423 points.
Christel writes: “Of course, until all the paperwork is submitted, everything is pending. Believe me, this was keeping all my wits together, and not giving up. I knew what I was trying to accomplish, but it was the hard way.”
She took pains to praise meet officials, who slaved in temps in the highs 90s.
“Back to the meet, it was organized and officiated in the best way that somebody can wish for. The weather was at its worst — maybe great for some athletes? It was a battle against the heat and humidity. We ran the 200 on Saturday in 96 F.”
Christel continued:
The meet organization was absolutely superb.Tom Thorne, his wife and his crew need to be thanked with highesr praise. Rex Harvey and his crew of officials worked tirelessly, and the schedule to accommodate the 60-plus athletes (deca and hep) all age groups was unbelievable. It’s still beyond me how the officials made it through those two days.
IT WAS A LABOR OF LOVE, and just saying Thank You is not even enough!
Driving home from Joplin left us with nothing but a great memory, well and a WR and being grateful for the comaraderie and the help we did get over the 2 days. Hopefully, somebody will elaborate about the” Friendly Rivalry” with the UK.
8 Responses
Hold your horses, Ken. This whole thing needs some serious analysis. We used the new grading tables Model 2010 in Joplin. If the listed American or world records have not been adjusted to Model 2010, you got some BIG scoring differences, mainly in the older age groups. Christel’s score could be much higher if scored according to 2006 tables. Wait a minute. Could it be that the W 75 went to lighter implements? I know the men did. Yes, it is confusing. Even I have to take a closer look at this and I’m pretty much involved in this thing. Christel’s world record will stand, that much is clear.
One additional fact cannot be disputed either. It was one of the best run meets I have experienced. The organization was unbelievable. We moved from one event to the other right on time. The officials were truly world-class. And despite the scorching heat, we had a wonderful competition. Thank you Tom, thank you USATF officials. And thank you guys for pushing me to meet my goals.
Congrats to all! Great job Christel! You may note in the picture that Caryl’s calf is heavily wrapped. She has been dealing with an achilles injury, and she smashed the AR while injured. What an athlete!
Yes, we had one implement change, shotput is now 2kg, for W 75 plus, and after a while, if feels the same… esp. when you have a rotator cuff tear and want to make it thru Sacto.!
As far as the scoring goes, I just trust Rex’s math.
If I could find a spellcheck on my PC, it would be used constantly, so bear with me, or correct me.
What a weekend! The heat was oppressive, but paled in the warmth extended by Tom Thorne and the crew from Keosho! After competition dinners/BBQ and mingling with our guests from across the pond make this championship event a wonderful experience. Tom’s acquiring of sponsorships and bringing out the welcome wagon are the model of what our sport can be! What an incredible job the officials did in moving things along while accommodating the athletes needs – THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! Special props to Kelly Meares for competing AND marking all the throwing events! Congratulations to Michael Janusey also on a great meet – good to see you healthy after your mishap in Lahti.
On a personal note, I think the new scoring tables stink! I achieved five PB’s and tied one other and improved my PR score by a whopping 68 points! Biggest hits were in the High Jump where my 1.67m (5′ 5.75″) scored the same amount of points (749) as last year’s 1.59m (5′ 2.5″) – old table would have scored 849! In the Long Jump I jumped 45cm further than in last season’s PR meet and gained 94 points – old table would have gained 127 points! I also lost 37 points by clearing the same height of 3.30m (10′ 10″) in the Pole Vault.
These marks would have been amongst the best 8% at last year’s World Championships in Lahti as 1.66 was the top HJ, two LJ’ers were better than 5.41 and only two PV’ers were better than 3.20. Were the jumps really scoring such gawdy numbers that they had to be reduced? Not to be outdone, in the running events, a 1.39 second improvement in the 400m from 1:03.62 TO 1:02.23 netted a gain of 40 points instead of 51 points on the “old” table. I did gain a bit on the old table in the hurdles as my PB of 15.92 garnered 815 points – that would have been only 788 on the old table. On the “old” tables my Deca score would have improved 275 points to 6437 so I realize I still have a great deal of work to do.
What I don’t get, is that only three athletes combined in the Men’s 50-54 have topped 7000 points in the last two Masters World Championships, which is 2000 points under the current world decathlon record. Why was there a need to make it more difficult to achieve “age-grading” marks of a comparable nature?
Noel Ruebel
Men’s 50-54
well done Christel:
I look forward to seeing you in Sacramento.
Congratulations Christel,
FR: David E. Ortman (M57) Seattle, WA
Congratulations to all the 2010 combined/multi-eventer participants.
The American Masters Decathlon Outdoor Track & Field Records listed on the USATF website is bizarre for a number of reasons:
http://www.usatf.org/statistics/records/byEvent.asp?division=american&location=outdoor%20track%20%26%20field&age=masters&eventName=decathlon
* As Ken pointed out,why is Rex Harvey’s 1991 record still listed as pending?
* Why is the M60 record in 2003 by Pawlik also listed as pending, when the M45 record at the same meet is not listed as pending?
* Why is the M60 record listed as a location of Carolina, PRI and the M45 record at the same meet listed as Carolina, PR?
* Why is the M80 record listed as a location of Seattle, OR (???????) when the meet was actually held in Shoreline, WA (see women’s records for the same date)?
What confidence can one have in USATF when it doesn’t seem to care about getting even basic facts correct on its webpage?
Perspiring minds want to know.
* Plus, don’t forget that William Murray was robbed of a M50 American Record in the Decathlon in 2006, in Shoreline, WA when they “lost”, “didn’t record,” “didn’t turn in,” the wind information for a USATF National Multi-event Championship. A screwup they appeared to have repeated in 2009!!
http://polevaultpower.com/decathlon/09results.htm
* Plus, with another change in the age-graded tables, we now have a mess in attempting to determine scoring results under the various tables (1989, 1991, 1994, 2006, 2010). It would be gift to all multi-eventers if someone could come up with an on-line program that would allow the entry of pent/hept/dec results that then calculates final scores under each of the versions of the age-graded tables.
I asked Sandy Pashkin last year why Rex Harvey’s 1991 score isn’t the AR in the M45 when it was over 400 points higher than the listed one, but the answer was inconclusive, something about a different javelin. So it had been taken away at some point, and just recently in the past month or so, reinstated. That’s why it’s listed as pending even tho it was 19 years ago. It probably should never have been taken away, so my score from last weekend won’t be credited with the AR.
I’m not so sure about the wisdom of changing age grading adjustments, either. It introduces room for error in recalculating all the old scores, and creates mass confusion in trying to compare performances over time. Especially when you have to go back and make sure whether a performance that formally was number 2 is now the record! And even tho under the old factors the throws paid too few points(because huge guys are still huge when they’re older but jumpers lose the spring), if it’s the same for everyone does it really matter?
Under the new factors it’s going to be very hard to score 8k, and impossible to score 9k. I think in addition to the factors in each individual event, a final score factor of, say, 102%-107% should be applied. My reasoning here is that it’s harder to train for the decathlon as a master than as a young guy, so the scores will always be less on average than in the open class. 102% for the 35s on up to 107% for 80+. Just something to think about.
BTW, it was a great meet, thanks to Tom Thorne and everyone else!
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