Douglas Kalembo aiming for even faster 400: amazing 47 seconds
Having run a near-solo sub-50 at 50, Douglas Kalembo is thinking Superman stuff. In reply to a request for details on his M50 world record in the 400 (49.85), Douglas wrote me: “My goal this year is to run 47.00.” He also described his day July 25: “Got up at 7, (ate) honey bunches of oats with almonds cereal. I was racing at 2:30. My warmup is always 1 mile and 4×100, walk back then running drills (for the) duration of my warmup. . . . Then rest for one hour. My race plan was to run the first 200 in 22 and then hang on for 25-26 for last 200, but was not feeling good. I had developed fever on Thursday because I overstayed in the ice bath. The weather was very hot — 97. Was very surprised with myself, because I was really feeling bad. The crowd was very supporting as you can hear on the video.” Here’s a video of the historic sub-50 at 50:
22 Responses
47 seconds is certainly a superman feat at 50,simply because he ran that at the Seoul Olympics (47.44)at 28 yrs old. It shows 7/24/60 as DOB…..or if you believe another IAAF DOB profile, (7/24/70), 18 yrs old.
Good luck Mr. Kalembo.
Even if he was 40 the time would be off the charts. Forgive my incredulity, it is very rare for someone to come into the sport “late” even in the US. In Africa it is almost an unheard occurrence.
I do know that US passports are not always accurate as they sometimes rely on outdated information or other documents that are very hard to validate. It is strange that we don’t seem to have a lot of results between say 1977-1987 for Kalembo. What was he doing?, who was he training with?, Where did he live?, What school did he attend?, did he run in any junior championships or other events where we can verify the results?
Does anyone else find this strange? I would feel more comfortable with this information, I don’t want to detract from his accomplishment, but a little more background on the situation would be helpful.
Mr. Kalembo’s 49.85 (or 49.86) at age 50 is indeed remarkable. I checked the times of our winners at Sacramento and found the following for M35, M40, and M45:
M35 Terrance Spann 50.21
M40 Eric Prince 50.28
M45 Marcus Shute 52.04
Whether Mr. Kalembo would have won M35 and M40 with his 49.85 we do not really know, of course. Terrance in M35 and Eric in M40 might have summoned the energy to get down into the 49s on seeing Mr. Kalembo ahead of them.
Antwon Dussett, with a remarkable 47.42 at age 34, was the only competitor in the entire meet to beat Mr. Kalembo’s time. Amazing.
Unfortunately Ken led the first post about Mr. Kalembo with controversy about his age. There are multiple sources on the net showing his birth date as July 24, 1960, including several relating to his competing in the 1988 Olympics for Zambia. Prior to that he was in Zambia and I doubt there’s much in the way of easily accessible records on track and field there even today. There is one source that shows him as born in 1970, all the others show 1960. Here’s one of the sources I found on Google:
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ka/douglas-kalembo-1.html
Google his name and multiple references come up. It also seems that after 1988 he came to the US and attended Blinn College (a 2-year college in Texas) where he was a star and is in the college’s Hall of Fame. He also ran for Zambia in the 1991 Worlds, this time in the 800 (finishing last in Johnny Gray’s heat). His best time in the 400 was 46.89 (though he didn’t go that fast in Seoul) and his best 800 time was 1:46.93, set while he was in Texas at Blinn and stood as the Zambian national record until 2005.
So Mr. Kalembo is far from a newcomer to track and field. In fact a number of people “come out of the woodwork” as they hit 50. We’ve seen several such throwers in the past couple of years, most notably Ed Riewarts and Carlos Scott from Texas. They finished 1-2 in the M-50 discus in Sacto with Carlos going 190′ (his second best performance of the season). If he gets in good throwing shape and heals from an injured ankle he may give Al Oerter’s M50 AR in the discus a real scare. Few of us remembered him (I sure didn’t) but he was a 209′ discus thrower in his 20s before playing in the NFL.
I don’t question his age. I’ve already researched it:
http://masterstrack.com/2010/06/13494/
Were he to lie on his passport, he’d be in a heap of trouble — far more than fudging his age group for a WR.
One more bit of information I just found on the net, in response to Matt B’s wondering if he ran in any junior championships prior to 1988. The first World Juniors was in 1986 (he was already much too old) and the first African Juniors was in 1994:
http://www.wjah.co.uk/wojc/meetlist.htm
For those that are still doubting Douglas Kalembo age and accomplishments, get over it. Our Investigative Team(Ken Stone) has already done the research and he is legit. Ken was not going to allow this to go untouched, so embrace the incredible feats he has established.
I believe Douglas Kalembo can go 47 in the 400. I know it sounds crazy, but if you witness this guy in person you will see what I am talking about. He has remarkable talent.
I went to Blinn College was the nationalchampoin
out door in 800m 1:47.18 in 1991,i won the indoor
but i was disqualifed and i have the video to profe it. 1:47.18 was the school record .After Blinn i
went to Angelo state university i broke the school record 1:47 still standing was unbeaten in my
school days i was only beaten once at the
national finals fouth place i was sick that day.
And WAS the National record hold for 15yrs in
800m in zambia and the national champion in 400m
Before Sam Matete came on the sin.Sam Matete was the world champoin in 400m hurdles in 1991 i will send videos to Ken so he can post them ok;
No disrespect but Ken really didn’t do any investigative research at all. Did he fly to Zambia? Go to the hospital where he was born?, photocopy the original birth certificate? Interview relatives? Talk to old schoolmates?
Kalembo aside for now; his times are amazing, regardless of his age. Personally it doesn’t matter to me if he is 40 or 60 he is one fast man.
This post is about US passports. This will be that last I really have to say on the matter, so take it for what it is worth, or disregard it.
The reality is that US Passports are not always correct.
To establish age, the passport agency has to rely on the best available documents at the time and that may be a previous passport from another country that used non-verifiable documents in the first place to establish age.
To quote a former poster “Prior to that he was in Zambia and I doubt there’s much in the way of easily accessible records on track and field there even today.” Along those same lines, what type of reliable information do you think exists in the way of hospital records from Zambia 40 or 50 years ago?
I gave an example in an earlier post regarding Fiji (could be many third world countries) where residents simply went down to the local hospital and obtained documents of “suggested” birthdates and if needed added a few years so they could obtain work and travel abroad to Britain.
A mature looking 15 year old may list his age as 20. Over time the emigrant would obtain a British passport which in turn is used as documentation to obtain a US passport when settling in the US. No penalty for “lying”. There is nothing that could be done about it now anyway, how can they possibly verify it? There are millions of US passports that exist that do not have the correct birthdates on them.
Even today passport fraud is possible: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/30/passports-vulnerable-fraud/
Don’t always take something at face value.
I wish I could argue Matt’s case, but I have also heard of this from athletes from other countries.
Thanks for taking the time to post some clear facts on passports, Matt B. I was aware of this, but I didn’t want to elaborate and cause anyone to think I had sour apples….I already know this type of fraud is rampant, and I’m certainly not accusing Mr. Kalembo.
I raised an eyebrow when Mr. Stone raised the discrepancy. I thought it warranted legitimate inquiry.
Douglas!
I remember running against Sam Matete in the 400IH when he was at Blinn. He was a beast as well as the rest of your Blinn team members. I think they were running 3:01 in the 4×400 and 38’s in the 4×100. All the College teams used to hate running against you guys.
You all were an all-star track team back then. I think they dropped the program some years ago.
Douglas – CONGRATULATIONS! I started running Senior Track a couple of years ago & finally broke 60 seconds in the 400 last fall (at the age of 51/years).
Breaking 50 in the Four @ 50/years is incredible!!!
You are an inspiration. Be careful & stay HEALTHY.
Mybe I willt try calling: The registrar in Zambia. (Oh gee that is interesting- 1/1/1973)From website:
Registration of birth is compulsory. Birth Certificates are available to any applicant born on or after January 1, 1973 and can be obtained by the applicant applying to:
Registrar General of Births, Deaths & Marriages
P.O. Box 32311
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA
Tel: (260-1) 228197
If a Birth Certificate was not issued at birth, but a Hospital Record of Birth or Baptismal Certificate was obtained, an Affidavit must be prepared by a member of the applicant’s family having knowledge of the birth.
The Affidavit must be sworn to before an officer authorized to administer oaths. The Hospital or Baptismal Certificate must be attached to the Affidavit, and submitted to the Registrar General requesting issuance of a late Birth Certificate.
OVER 1.5 million children in Zambia do not have birth certificates,….
http://ssl.brookes.ac.uk/ubr/files/6/143-Zambia_Over.pdf
Even more, the availability of alternative registration documents such as affidavits, immunization cards and under five cards, which are legally acceptable in the absence of birth certificates, further weakens the case for birth registration. http://ssl.brookes.ac.uk/ubr/files/3/78-Zambia_Country_Report.pdf
I want Mr. Kalembo to be 50, heck I think it would be great. Something does not sit right with me.
Bravo, Matt ! Again,thanks for the stark details on this matter….And it’s not sitting right with many of our comrades.
Who said, Ken Stone was the final say on this ?:)
Thank you Sal,
Of course I just want to be clear I am not insinuating that there was any fraud on the part of Mr. Kalembo. I do believe there are discrepancies that exist with birth verification and within the US passport agency. They can only use the best available and sometimes “non-verifiable” papers given to them. I don’t mean to debate with Ken the validity of Kalembo’s age, but I feel it is important to understand the depth of the matter.
After reading the article I truly did not realize how much of a problem it is in Zambia. It is highly unlikely that Douglas Kaelmbo has ever possessed a valid Birth certificate.
http://ssl.brookes.ac.uk/ubr/files/3/78-Zambia_Country_Report.pdf
Shocking: “In Zambia, of the 1.9 million children under five years, over 90 percent (or about 1.7 million) do not have a birth certificate. The
situation is particularly worse in rural areas where only 6 percent of births are registered.” Page 6. “In 2004, Plan Zambia conducted a survey in three rural districts which revealed that less than 1% of over 2,000 children of primary school leaving age, had a birth certificate. Of the 491 adult respondents, comprising parents, teachers, medical personnel and Victim Support Unit (Zambia Police) officers, only 15 had birth certificates.”
Be sure to read the focus group discussions at the end of the document regarding why parents do not register their children. Very interesting.
Some document or other substitute form must have been used in order for him to gain entrance to Blinn College. Perhaps someone can call the registrars office there.
If I find my international calling card that I know I has some minutes left on from a previous trip, I will try the office in Zambia, but I am almost certain they will have no record.
It may very difficult to ever completely authenticate age/birth. At least we can be more knowledgeable about the subject. This incident will not be an isolated one I fear in Masters track and field. Again it is not about claiming that someone purposely tried to deceive us about their true age in order to set Masters T& F records,(actually there may be a few competitors out there who will steep that low)I suppose that just happens to be a consequence or an offshoot of a much larger issue surrounding valid ID/passports.
How do we maintain the integrity of our sport; not just when it comes to drug use, or fudged times/results , but with the question of age itself?
With the number of African athletes (or at least their Federations) that lie about age in junior competitions (putting athletes well into their 20’s into races against teenagers) I wouldn’t doubt this man is lying about his age. He might be telling the truth, but there’s no way to know for sure. Remember, up through the early 1980’s, African athletes would lie about their age, making themselves out to be older, in order to join the police forces or military to enjoy better training conditions. Now they lie the other way in order to scoop up even more medals.
Ken is correct, age fraud on a passport may lead to serious consequences to include Social Security/ Medicare fraud. But more importantly, Douglas is in my age group…
Texas records of divorce lists a Douglas Kalembo as 26 years old in 1997 – would be 40 this year.
http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/walker/vitals/divorces/1997/walkev97.txt
an athlete that for different years you/he/she has not raced, it returns and it competes in sub 50..me from of the unbelievable one, I hope that his both only sweat of training…
I hope DOuglas will do anti doping tests and age controls: if he will not do these tests 50% of masters will not believe to his results.
Why there is a divorce document where the age is 26 years old in 1997?
Do I feel me from athlete to be taken around by these performances, but which is the true age of Duglas Kalembo?
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ka/douglas-kalembo-1.html
http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/biographies/country=zam/athcode=7932/index.html
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