Karla Del Grande, Canadian half-milers go crazy — again
Doug Smith reports from Ontario: “Three Canadian (age-group) records were broken at Sunday’s Athletics Ontario Senior Championships at the Toronto Track & Field Centre. W55 Karla Del Grande continued her assault on the record book with a 28.34 in the 200m. She broke Diane Palmason’s 14-year-old record of 30.33 and Karla was running in the not-the-fastest Lane #2. (The listed W55 world indoor record is Phil Raschker’s 27.81 from 2003.) Tom Tushingham held the M45 Canadian record of 2:03.19 in the 800 that he set at the Ontario Masters Indoor Championships in 1987. The mark stood for 22 years until last month.”
Doug continued:
Alain Boucher ran a 2:01.11 on the 400-meter indoor track in Ottawa on Jan 17. (Indoor records can’t be set on a 400 track, but it showed that Alain was capable of going after the mark on a 200m track.)
At the OMA Mini Meet #2 on Jan. 25, Paul Osland and Mike Sherar both went under the record — Paul running 2:02.00 and Mike setting the new record in 2:01.27 (but still “slower” than Alain’s performance).
On Sunday, they were determined to drop the record even further and erase any asterisks from the record book — after all, this isn’t baseball! Paul ran in an 800 heat and finished in 2:01.10 — setting a new CAN record and erasing any ***
Paul’s name in the record rook was shortlived when, four minutes later, Mike ran in the next heat and finished in 1:59.36! (Mike’s time was only 0.9 seconds slower than the M35 CAN record!)
The 4x800m world record is 8:07.6. If we get these three guys together, we’d just need a 2:05 runner to go for the record!
5 Responses
Karla Del Grande rocks. Can’t wait to announce her in the nationals at Landover (March 20-22). As a rule, Canadian entrants are not listed among the entrants (and thus you don’t see her name). Karla will have to lock horns with Jacqueline “Jacquie” Board, who was a member of the first women’s masters team to break 4:00 in the 4 x 400.
She’ll also have to duel with the ultra-quick Sharon Warren, and Iowa’s Kay Glynn will definitely be in the mix. Cathy Nicoletti, Ashley Childs, Rebecca Mitchell, and Debbie Carter are also in the field. Wow.
By the way, the sprint fields for Landover are either the strongest or the second-strongest in the last 14 years. I should know, as I have announced 12 of the last 13 national indoor masters.
Pete – Canadians used to be listed with an ‘*’ asterisk. Made life easier trying to report on the meet.
Right, Doug (the Junior, formerly known as the Younger to distinguish him from the Doug Smith who went to Occidental [in California]). Yes, they used to be listed with an asterisk in the results; I don’t recall that they were ever listed with an asterisk in the entries on the Web. Thus, as an announcer I was tripped up a few times in past years …..Oh, Karla is here, or, oh, The Great Earl is here.
Fortunately, this year one can go to pvtc.org to keep up with the Canadian entries. There it shows both Karla and The Great Earl (plus 1988 Olympian Renee Belanger). Even The Great Earl was never an Olympian.
Peter is right – Karla is a great sprinter. FYI, she not only broke my Canadian W55+ from 1995 for the 400m, a few weeks ago she broke my CR for W55+ for the 200m as well. Both those marks were set in a meet at the Bill Cosby track in Reno – first time I’d raced indoors since moving to Denver from Ottawa – and thus away from the indoor track facility where Karla, and the Great Earl, both work out and train.
Tip for Peter – Earl joins the 80+ gang in late March. Be on the lookout for some further record-setting!
I also hope that Peter will find a chance to put in a “plug” for the WMA Indoor champs in Kamloops next March 1 -6, 2010. Harold Morioka took a team of his Greyhound track-mates to the BC Indoor (and Masters) championships there last weekend. The total facility looks great – and WMA types (Rex Harvey among them) – were there and discussing further enhancements to this relatively new facility (slightly widening the lanes etc.). So it should be a great meet. What a treat to have it on this side of the Atlantic. I hope to see you all there.
Diane
Thank you, Diane. Of course, you have been a most versatile performer yourself. Yes, I remember that famous photo of you, Kathy Bergen, and Carolyn Cappetta finishing together in the 200 at Reno in 1995. Unfortunately for me, I did not announce that one.
Yes, The Great Earl turns 80 on March 22, the last day of the indoor nationals. We are definitely ready for The Great Earl, as we are for Karla Del Grande. The meet will almost certainly have the largest attendance ever for a US indoor masters (according to National Masters News the record is 849, set in Boston in 2000).
Right now it looks like we will end up with about 875 or 880 (we are well over 800 right now, but I don’t have exact count). Brazil, Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Bermuda are represented as well as the US.
I announced the North American/Canadian outdoor championships in Kamloops in 2000. I will definitely mention the 2010 World Indoors when I announce at our indoor nationals next month. As you probably know, things in US Masters have been a bit rough recently, but maybe they are nicer in Canada.
For example, we have had elite performers run FAT American or world records at some of our most important meets (Hartshorne Mile, Penn Relays, Mount San Antonio College [Mt. SAC] Relays) and not even make “pending” status. Thus, things are a bit shaky in the US, but perhaps they are better in Canada.
Leave a Reply