Kudos to Christian Coleman for his WR 6.34 in 60-meter dash. See you in 2031, when you’re 35.
Ageless
Bob Lida at 81 and
Kathy Bergen at 78 dominated the masters exhibition races Sunday at
ABQ indoor nationals, missing their own 200-meter world records by fractions. Kathy clocked 33.23 on the banked track at altitude – just off her listed WR of 33.06 in 2015. Bob broke the 30-second barrier again with his 29.95 — off his listed M80 WR of 29.15 set last year at Daegu worlds. Both beat the whippersnappers —
Tom Bowden (75) and
Frank Strouse (77) and
Marcella Hale-Hall (67) and Kathy’s Striders teammate
Brenda Matthews (68). Meanwhile,
Jenn Suhr at age 36 missed making the IAAF indoor worlds team by taking third with a vault of 4.81 (15-9¼) — matching a mark from last year. But it’s past time to recognize her as W35 WR woman, since the listed WR is
Stacy Dragila’s 4.61 (15-1½) from 2009. On Saturday, flying under my radar, a masters PV was held at indoor nationals, with
William Nesbitt (56) and
Brad McFarling (59) going 1-2 at 3.81 (12-6) and 3.50 (11-5¾) in an event denoted as being for M60-70. The first M60 was
Bob Crites, who went 3.35 (10-11¾) at age 63. Exhibitions organizer
Joy Upshaw filled the 200-meter lanes by relaxing some standards, so good for her.
Masters exhibitionists were corralled for this great team shot by Dave Albo.
3 Responses
Bubba Sparks, who took part in the masters vault, responded to a query on who organized this event. Turns out it was privately set up, Bubba writes:
Brad Winter has been a city councilman for almost 25 years. He also served a stint as an interim Secretary of State.
He was largely responsible for the purchase of this track and the driving force to bring all of these meets here.
He was a great vaulter in his day and was still jumping 16′ until late in his 30s. Great guy. It’s all his fault.
To add to what Bubba Sparks reported, the local association has the right to an exhibition event whenever the national are held in their territory. Almost use it for youth races, but not New Mexico. The first time the meet was held there the exhibition event was the men’s shot put. Then as now, a local luminary involved in getting the track in Albuquerque was the moving force – in that case it was Jamie Koch, at the time the Chair of the University of New Mexico’s Board of Regents. Jamie competed in last year’s indoor nationals in the M80 group.
Kathy’s time at 78 age grades much better than her WR at 75. Amazing.
Leave a Reply