Grace Padilla applying for American record in W40 1500 meters
Thanks to Andy Hecker’s legwork and Grace Padilla’s legs and lungs, the bogus-beyond-belief W40 American record for 1500 meters will be toast. Grace turned 40 on May 29, and on June 4 at Mount San Antonio College she ran the 15 in 4:28.77. That beats the listed AR of 4:32.73 by Joan Nesbit in 2002. Of course, the true best W40 time for this event is probably Ruth Wysocki’s 4:08 from the late 1990s, lost in the mists of record-ignoring
About Ken Stone
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
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10 Responses
wow! congratulations to her! great time!
Just to take one example, Alisa Harvey ran 4:26.49 FAT at the Penn Relays for 1500 several years ago. The referee at Penn signified by his signature that everything was done in accordance with the rules, and the chief of FAT attested to the time of 4:26.49. The Penn Relays, through its Web site, publicized Alisa’s record.
That record was submitted and went nowhere in terms of gaining acceptance. Of course, that is just one of perhaps 20 marks over the years that have been superior to the listed 4:32.73.
Dena Evans writes: Kris ran 4:23.54 at Payton Jordan. J.R. Heberle of the Pacific Association has been kind enough to submit both that mark and the 4:29 for us to USATF. Makes me think a women’s 1500 exhibition at USA’s might be juicier than the 3k, with Grace, Kris, Aeron, and Sonja all running well.
You’re talking about some hard hitters there, Ken. Yowza. Worth the price of admission by itself. These young women can rumble.
Why bother with all the paperwork?, I bet the winning time at World’s will be 4:27 or better, but it looks like Kris’s mark of 4:23.54 may get verified. Not sure they will better that time… maybe.
I don’t believe Kris is entered in World’s. The other three ladies will duke it out. Should be interesting.
They have to go through trials across town at American River on the 13th but
its Friday, Friday, FRIDAY, July 15 7:20 p.m. at CSUS BE THERE!!
Which now has me confused on the earlier posts I made about the Marathon being on a Friday. Apparently its on a Sunday–even harder to find transportation.
OK back to the point: Yes we can take the defeatist attitude that the paperwork will be moot. Maybe that is what has happened on the 20 other occasions the record has been improved upon (though I doubt it). In Southern California, where I know all the officials, if a record performance, relative to what is currently posted, happens, I’ll go through the process to give it the benefit of the doubt. I hope everybody else can do the same in their area.
Oh gee, thats more confusion. The race is 7:20 a.m. Oh what a great time for their legs to be fresh and ready to run a record. And a beautiful crowd . . .
Of course, Matt B. (post no. 5), the idea of waiting for Sacramento worlds to establish a W40 American mark for 1500 depends on the idea that it would be accepted.
As an aside, I hadn’t realized that the world marks were updated in late May; the US marks haven’t been updated in quite awhile but do reflect a lot of Albuquerque performances.
In terms of the world marks, Bill Collins (24.32 at Albuquerque in M60) is the only one who made it through in the 200 from that meet. Both the W50 mark of Joy Upshaw (26.24) and the W75 mark of Barbara Jordan (36.80) did not make it. Interesting, because they were run on the same day at the same meet (as Bill’s).
In terms of American marks, as you know, 0% of the marks in the 60 made it through. In the 200, only 25% made it through according to the current posting. In the 400, 60% made it through. In the 800, the only new mark was not recognized.
This indicates a new era; before 2010 (Boston) you were pretty much a cinch to have your record accepted if you did it at nationals. No more.
In terms of the women’s 1500 final at Sac Worlds, that will indeed be at 7:20 AM. Do not anticipate a big crowd at that time, but the race should be very exciting.
Here are some long lost 1500 performances for W40. Correct me If I am wrong, but I have these on file…
3:59.78 Yekaterina Podkopayeva(RUS-42) @Nice on 7/18/94 (DOB:6-11-52)
4:05.19i Yekaterina Podkopayeva(RUS-44) @?? on 3/09/97 (DOB:6-11-52)
4:05.44 Yekaterina Podkopayeva(RUS-46) @??
on 8/03/98 (DOB:6-11-52)
4:06.92 Regina Jacobs(USA-40) @Paris/Worlds
on 8/29/03 (DOB:8-28-63) 6th semi #2
4:08.69 Ruth Wysocki (USA-40) @Los Angeles/USC/Reeb VO2 Max Meet on 5/18/97 (DOB:3-08-57) 1st
and then all of the 4:23,26,27,28,29 performances
And a W1500 field with Padilla, Paaso, Harvey, Arlin-Genet, Sonja and a few others would be a great race
Yes, Jim, I am sure you are correct. Too bad that none of them were accepted (possibly excepting the 4:06.92 by Jacobs, which may have been tainted).
Just looked at the http://www.usatf.org site; I see that 75% of the records set in the 200 dash at Albuquerque (March 2011) were not recognized. I bring this up because that was nationals; I guess the virus has spread to include our national championships.
Of course, if you point out that the system needs repair you may get yourself in some trouble, Jim.
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