The hardest record in masters track? That’s easy. The M100 4×400. First you have to find four centenarians to run. . . . Of course, we don’t have a record in this age group. But it helps one appreciate a 4×1 world record set last month at the British Columbia Senior Games — a rare appearance of four eightysomethings passing a stick. A local paper finally reported it — as part of a profile of one of the relay members. Leona Smith, 80, told Molly McNulty of the Terrace Standard: “I was thinking in my mind that we could do it. When we were finished they told us we had broken the world record and we cheered, I almost forget the fatigue.” Their time of 1:49.15 broke the listed W80 WR of 1:59.63, set by Brazil in 2006. The BC’ers averaged 27.3 per leg. Congrats to the Canucks — and Harold Morioka, who assembled the team.

Here’s the story, in case the link goes buh-bye:

World record breaker
By Molly McNulty – Terrace Standard
Published: October 07, 2008 11:00 PM
A WORLD record was broken at the BC Seniors Games in the women’s ages 80 and up 4 x 100 metre relay.
Leona Smith of Terrace was one of four other ladies from around the province who ran in the relay.
Smith, who is 80 years old, ran with Hildegard Buschhaus, Olga Kotelko, and Doreen McLeod-Smith. The time to beat was 1:59.63, set by a Brazilian team on November 11, 2006 in Rio de Janeiro. Smith’s team ran with a finishing time of 1:49.15, securing the new record with 10 seconds to spare.
Harold Morioka, who is the B.C. Provincial Director to the Canadian Masters Athletic Association (CMAA), gathered the four women together for the record breaking race.
“We had been running and jumping all day,” says Smith. “But we said okay…we spent maybe 10 minutes practising all together.”
Morioka has been looking after sporting records for B.C. for eight years. At events, he is always looking for athlete’s with fast times to put together to break B.C. records and Canadian records, but says it’s seldom a world record.
“I looked at their individual times, and thought, hey we got four ladies here who can break the world record,” says Morioka. “I asked them if they wanted to run and try, of course they were excited.”
The whole race Smith says she just kept hoping she wouldn’t drop the baton.
“I was thinking in my mind that we could do it,” says Smith. “When we were finished they told us we had broken the world record and we cheered, I almost forget the fatigue.”
The relay was not a scheduled event at the BC Seniors Games but Morioka found enough runners with fast enough times to put together three different teams, in different age groups. Smith’s team was the only one vying for a world record.
With the possibility of breaking a world record, the sporting event had to meet the standards of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Also, the record must be ratified by a national body, which in this case is the CMAA.
In order to be considered, the race was done under the required rules and regulations. Level five and International referee John Cull was present during the race, with CMAA and IAAF rules on hand. They had proper starts, proper timing, and a photo finish.
The required minimum of three teams were running at once, and officials were at each exchange to make sure all the handoff’s were done legally.
Morioka says they did break the world record, but it still has to be approved by the CMAA, which takes about six months. Morioka has to send in the information regarding the race, as well as copies of their birth certificates to prove that the women were really 80 years or older.
Morioka believes there was only one other world record broken at the B.C. Seniors Games, and that it belongs to Kotelko for the women’s ages 85 hammer throw. She threw 18.62 metres at the 2004 games in Penticton.
Although the event wasn’t initially a part of the games, Smith says that she received a gold medal for the event, and that it feels pretty good.