Collins’ clocking at Penn Relays misreported as M55 WR
Southwest Sprinters TC won the featured masters 4×400 at Penn today, and I mean featured. Unlike some open invitationals than shunt the masters to the earliest hour of the meet, the M40 4×4 took place in the primest of prime time — in front of 50,000 fans right after Allyson Felix’s team won the women’s 4×100 and right before the men’s featured 4×100 where seven teams (including one with Tyson Gay) broke 40 seconds. Cool. Later, Joe Summerlin of the Dallas Masters TC won the geezer 100 (75 and over) in 14.92. Joe is 76. Amid all this, the Houston Chronicle reported that Bill Collins’ winning 11.44 in the M55 100 yesterday at Penn was a WR. Not so. Long story.
A couple weeks ago, I reported that Bill had run a windy 11.40 at a college quadrangular meet in Houston. But when I first heard of the meet, the time was given as a legal-wind 11.39. Since the Web results said 11.40 with a 2.5 mps wind, I wrote to the meet host, Texas Southern University.
I got this reply from Rodney Bush, Texas Southern’s sports Information director: “Bill Collins’ time is a world record. The legal time is 11.39.”
I wrote back to him, asking why the Web results differed and what the wind reading was, but he never wrote back. However, I can’t blame anyone for not knowing that 11.44 is not Bill’s M55 best (breaking a previous Collins WR of 11.50). In addition, mastersrankings.com lists 11.39 as Bill’s time at Texas Southern, posted by Bill or his wife, Stephanie.
So you ask me why I’m losing my hair?
In any case, here’s what the Chronicle reported today:
Houstonian sets 55-and-over record in 100
Bill Collins of the Houston Elite track club set a world record for his age group in the 100-meter dash at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on Friday.
Collins won the men’s masters 55-and-over division in the 100-meter dash in 11.44 seconds.
In 2007, Collins won three gold medals at the World Athletics Masters Championship in Riccione, Italy.
Collins took the 100, 200 and 400 meters in his men’s masters 55 division with winning times of 11.81, 23.76 and 53.45 seconds, respectively.
Here are Saturday’s masters results at Penn:227 MM Masters Men’s 4×400 40 and older Saturday, 2:10 pm
Place ID School/Affiliation Mark Runners
1 A Southwest Sprinters TC A 3:26.07 Marcus Shute, Khalid Mulazim, David Jones, Robert Thomas
2 D Nike Central Park TC 3:37.23 Gladstone Jones, Darnell Gatling, Anselm Lebourne, Gavin Henry
3 B Southwest Sprinters TC B 3:38.44 James Chinn, Jim Watts, Eric Dixon, John Simpson
4 C Synergy TC 3:41.89 Clinton Aurelian, William Marshall, Howard Lindsay, David Bynoe
5 I Alabama Express 3:48.78 Robert Hardin, Michael Bridell, Kenny Edward, Reggie Hill
6 G Phila. Athletics Charities 3:49.38 Scott Landis, Rick Exantus, Daryl Johnson, Kevin Forde
8 H Mass Velocity TC 3:52.23 Eric Bucher, Charlie Kelly, Terrance Haynes, David Neumann
9 F Shore AC 3:55.00 Pat Dolan, Keith Davis, Chris Harkins, Keith McQuitter
247 MM Masters Men’s 100m dash 75 and older Saturday, 4:35 pm
Winds: +0.9
Place ID Athlete School/Affiliation Mark
1 3 Joe Summerlin Dallas Masters 14.92
2 2 Bill Melville Midwest Masters 15.41
3 1 Edward Cox Syracuse Chargers 16.27
4 4 Hal Goolsby Unattached 16.50
5 5 Wilton Gordon Glenarden TC 16.58
6 6 Byford Reed Unattached 16.62
7 7 John Darrell Unattached 17.16
8 8 Richard Dillon Unattached 17.65
9 9 Bert Lancaster Philadelphia Masters 18.55
10 10 Bob Matteson Mass Velocity TC 22.05
63 MM Masters Men’s 10k Racewalk Saturday, 7:00 am
Place ID Athlete School/Affiliation Mark
1 21 David Talcott Shore AC 52:12.06
2 20 Douglas Johnson Kentucky Racers 54:03.65
166 MW Masters Women 5K Racewalk Saturday, 8:00 am
Place ID Athlete School/Affiliation Mark
1 22 Maryann Daniel Conneticut Race Walkers 27:18.39
2 21 Panseluta Geer Shore AC 29:52.67
3 20 Sheri Stager Unattached 31:36.98
5 Responses
I’d like to congratulate my team mates on a great Job at Penn, with Wins and placing in the 100, 4×100 & 4×400 relays. A fantastic showing!!
Ken:
The time of 11.44 that Bill Collins ran on Friday (into the wind, no less) was reported as a world mark by the announcer because it bettered the listed world mark of 11.50 (also by Collins). Given the situation with masters records, the announcer can only go by the listed marks. Thus, in my humble opinion the title of this segment (“Collins’clocking at Penn Relays misreported as M55 WR”) is somewhat misleading. There are many, many masters marks that are superior to the marks listed on the USATF Web site (in various events). As noted, announcers can only go by the “official” records.
as spoken by a true gentleman, Mr. Peter Taylor…it was thrilling watching Bill better his mark in the 100M.
It was a great meet this year, weather was phenomenal..
NOW let’s get those plane tickets booked to fill up Spokane, WA later on this summer….forget the desolate facility at Clermont, FL. I hear it’s out in the open, no restrooms, no trees, HS like bleachers at best, no hotels in site, no concessions or quality restaurants nearby and most of all…NO SHADE on site!!!! here’s the link (http://www.usantc.com/track.htm)
Thank you, Simpdog. And the announcer at Penn was kind enough to acknowledge your All-American status at Baylor, was he not? I will modify my comments just a bit re Bill Collins and 11.44. The announcer drew the attention of the huge crowd, the media, etc. to Bill’s remarkable performance, and if I am not mistaken it was selected by Office Depot as the “Office Depot Fast Finish of the Meet” for the entire day (Friday). But on reflection, I now fully understand what Ken Stone meant — he is referring to what the Houston Chronicle reported. And yet I can not fault the newspaper at all. The “world,” in effect, was told: “You have just seen a remarkable performance by Bill Collins. It was a world record (11.44).” What they meant, of course, was: “It beats the mark currently on the books.” That is all one can ask for.
As far as Simpdog’s comments about Clermont (Florida)– that will be the site of the “North Americans,” a meet that is just 4 months away. I truly hope that the director of the meet seizes this opportunity to explain in detail what the situation will be. Maybe it will be better than we know — after all, who among us has competed there? We can only go by what others have told us and by what we can see on the Web. We would love to know that improvements are in the works (or that improvements are already in place). Maybe Clermont is actually a very good site, but we need the meet director to tell us that (with examples of what is in available in terms of shade, restrooms, hotels, concessions, restaurants, etc.). As Clermont will be the site for both the 2008 North Americans and the 2009 Masters Outdoor Nationals, we really want to know.
The announcer was very gracious in doing so the other day..it kind of pumped me up for a brief moment, about 30 meters or so…one of these days I’ll bring my “A” game to Penn…April is really early for us non-indoor bums…
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