John Altendorf of Corvallis, Ore., forgot to wear his helmet on a couple jumps yesterday at Kamloops. No matter. He still lifted his own world indoor record in the M60 pole vault, raising the roof in the process. The fieldhouse crowd cheered their lungs out when John, who turns 64 next week, cleared 4.02 (13-2 1/4) on his third try and then 4.05 (13-3 1/2) on first attempt, reports Bob Weiner, our media man. John’s previous age-group best was 4.00 (13-1 1/2) set in 2008. Americans kicked butt in the 60-meter hurdles yesterday, too, winning 10 titles. Don Drummond of Lawrenceville, Ga., missed the M40 American record by two-hundredths of a second. Don won in 8.24, just shy of the 8.22 by Glen Patterson in 2003 and Rod Jett in 2008.

John Altendorf signals all is well as he posed with a volunteer official who escorted him to drug-testing after his WR vaults. (Photo by Bubba Sparks)

And as luck would have it, Teresa the Traveler of YouTube fame taped an interview with John Altendorf the day before he competed.

See it here:

Another great roundup from Kamloops mediafolk:

DAY 5 — Friday, March 5

The women threw their weight around Friday — and they were rewarded with world records at the 2010 WMA World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships.

Ulrike Engelhardt of Germany set a new standard in the women’s 50 age group of the Weight Throw. Engelhardt threw 15.59 metres, which was better than the mark of 15.42m held by Vanessa Hilliard of the United States. Engelhardt was one of four women who broke world records in the Weight Throw on Friday.

Galina Kovalenskaya of Russia threw 10.25m to win the W75 age group. Kaija Jortikka of Finland was the previous record holder at 9.54m.
Rachel Hanssens of Belgium captured her fifth gold medal of the meet and her second world record when she won the W80 Weight Throw with a toss of 8.01m — nearly a metre better than Canadian Olga Kotelko’s previous mark of 7.06m. Hanssens also set a record in winning the Shot Put (7.15m) on Wednesday, and also won gold in the Javelin, Discus and Hammer Throw.

Kotelko might have lost a record Friday, but she gained two more — one in winning the W90 Weight Throw with a toss of 6.32m (American Betty Jarvis had the old mark of 5.45m), and another by winning the Triple Jump with a leap of 4.14m. There hadn’t been a W90 record in the Triple before, so Kotelko’s mark is new on the books.

That brings Kotelko’s total thus far this week to nine gold medals and seven world records, with one more day of competition remaining.

Some of the biggest cheers of the day were reserved for John Altendorf of the United States when he twice broke his own world record in the M60 Pole Vault. Altendorf entered the day with the record of 4.00m. He bettered that at 4.02m, and then bettered it once more with a final leap of 4.05m.

Altendorf’s gold helped the mighty U.S. machine to a team-leading 240 medals — 105 gold, 78 silver and 57 bronze. Canada is close behind at 210 medals, including 70 gold, 76 silver and 64 bronze. Germany (38 gold, 25 silver, 31 bronze, 94 total), Australia (18 gold, 13 silver, 16 bronze, 47 total) and Great Britain (16 gold, 24 silver, 13 bronze, 53 total) round out the top five.

The Aussies were glad to see teammate Heather Carr win her second gold medal of the meet when she captured the W60 division of the 10K Race Walk on Friday. Carr crossed the finish line with a time of 56 minutes 17.1 seconds. Earlier this week she won the W60 3,000m Race Walk in a world-record time of 15:54.75.

After Friday’s race, Carr went directly to the Kamloops Airport to begin the return trip home to Melbourne — a sad journey, as she is going home for the funeral of her mother, who died on Feb. 25, the eve of Carr’s trip to Kamloops.

Now I have only one question: What happens if they drug-test Olga and she comes up positive for banned substances?

Who’s gonna tell a 91-year-old that she’s a doper and a cheat?