Ed Whitlock lowers M85 WR in the mile by 46 freaking seconds!
Friday night in Cambridge, Ontario, all-galaxy runner Ed Whitlock boggled minds again by running a mile in 7:18.55. He’s 85, folks! That obliterated the listed M85 world record of 8:04.7 by Germany’s Josef Galia in 1985. A Canadian running magazine reports: “Whitlock’s most recent record came at the historic Cambridge Classic Mile, an annual event that takes place on a crushed red clay track at Galt Collegiate in the southern Ontario city. The event is inspired by Roger Bannister’s sub-four mile which was run on May 6, 1954. … Whitlock was part of the 55-and-over race at the Cambridge Classic Mile, which began at 6:35 p.m. local time on Friday.” Nice run, Ed!
It's official a new world record in the M85+ mile in an official 7:18.55 #ClassicMile @RunCRS @CanadianRunning @R4L pic.twitter.com/FNdyNxts2t
— Mike Shanks (@mikepgww) June 10, 2016
4 Responses
Outstanding. Congrats, Ed, you are my hero!
Is it really official?
The short answer, Fidel, is that it is is NOT official. Whether Ed’s mark will be accepted over the next year or two as a world record I do not know.
I’m sure you noticed, Fidel, that this looks like a substandard track. Has it been surveyed? The “curb” looks terrible. Moving beyond that, did meet management obtain the results of the zero control test and everything else it will need to have the mark accepted?
As you know, Fidel, of mile races run after January 2013 by male masters around the world, just one had produced an official world masters mark as of 12-31-2015. That was the race in London, England, in July 2015 in which Bernard Lagat ran 3:57.91 (an M40 record). I don’t like Ed’s chances of being number 2.
All of this is not to say anything negative about the great Ed Whitlock. There’s nothing like running like a young gazelle when you’re 85.
Yes, I think its acceptance is somewhat doubtful although the organizer said the track was properly surveyed and registered. To my uneducated eye the curbs looked OK. Regarding the time and the zero control test, I don’t know if that was done or not, but I believe it is not required for distances above 400m.
Anyway this may all become unnecessary if I manage to do as well tomorrow when I will be running a mile on a modern track supervised by people who know all the ins and outs. Maybe no one knows all the ins and outs but this lot is much better than average.
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