Kathy in 2009
Thursday Night at the Races at the Armory in New York yielded a stunning time this week: a 5:12.2 world record for W60
Kathy Martin in the indoor 1500, chopping 10 seconds off the listed WR of 5:22.50 by Britain’s
Pat Gallagher in 2006. When I heard about this, I wrote Kathy. She replied from New York: “Felt great. Listened to coach and Ian Brooks not to take it out too fast. Last month I did 3000 WR but paid dearly after taking it out in 37-38. I will run it more intelligently at worlds and indoors. Felt very comfortable last night. Feel there is a lot more in there and will hopefully improve it at worlds as well. … Ian is a tremendous announcer, knows his athletes and keeps a running dialogue. No clock present last night. Coach says probably helped as I might have run according to the clock instead of effort based.” Results are not yet on
the Armory site. But Kathy says she’s started paperwork for record.
4 Responses
When can a world record not be unexpected? The answer is when Kathy Martin is on the line. Something tells me that on March 17 in Bloomington, Indiana, we will see the current world indoor mark in the mile (W60) get obliterated.
What is the current record? It is 6:02.49, by Marie-Louise Michelson. Marie-Louise ran that time in our 2003 indoors in Boston, and who else ran beautifully that day? How about Kathy Martin, who required 5:24.44 to win the W50 gold.
I would expect the announcer in Bloomington to make quite a fuss when Kathy becomes the first 60+ woman in the history of the world to break 6 minutes in the mile indoors. In truth, there will be no way she does not break 5:40.
I hope Kathy can bring down that amazing 1500m record in Finland. WR set at WMA meets appear to be approved much more readily than WR set even at USATF National Masters Meets. Kathy – just make sure you keep track of your laps – strange things have been known to happen even at WMA meets when it comes to lap counting. Usually it is a massive screw-up for the 3k – not the 1500 but you never know -:)
Congratulations Kathy on your new World Record!
Super job Kathy! Way to put a hurt on that world indoor 1500 record. Looks like your indoor time is almost identical to the outdoor W60 world record by Sabra Harvey listed at 5:12.27 posted on 7/25/10. Good thing there are a few things left to keep you busy in the summer. . .don’t want you to get bored and take up a new sport.
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