Antwon Dussett won the M35 deuce before helping set 4×400 world record.
In my hyperventilated excitement over witnessing gents in their 90s handling a baton at nonwarp speed, I overlooked a stunning WR at North Carolina nationals. The
Southwest Sprinters TC team of
Leon Bullard, 40;
Blair DeSio, 43;
Edward Winslow Jr., 45; and
Antwon Dussett, 38, clocked a 3:19.45 to nip the listed M35 world record of 3:19.90 in the 4×400 set at 2005 San Sebastian worlds in 2005. Southwest Sprinters’
Robert Thomas was on that team. (Notice that only one under-40 dashman was on the latest record? Amazing.)
USATF reported the record (and several others I overlooked) 10 days ago. (My stoopid excuse: I had to leave the meet to catch a plane in Charlotte.) However, I’d love to hear the splits. Congrats, guys!
Ed Winslow shared this shot of himself and teammates in the M35 WR. Not sure who is who, except for Antwon (at far right). Post IDs in the comments, please.
18 Responses
Ken, Robert Thomas got the (unofficial) splits, and they were “sick,” as the saying goes. I wish I could remember them. The mean age of these four speedsters was 41.5, and they averaged 49.86 per man!
Ed Winslow, aged 45 as you said, was the anchor instead of the expected Antwon Dussett, and thus Ed had the pressure of holding it together following the valiant performances of his three teammates. That he did.
Ken, this 3:19.45 was one of the most spectacular achievements I have witnessed in more than three decades of masters T&F; I hope you will be able to interview all of the members about their magnificent performance.
Robert Thomas and I were saddened to see our Record go, but I would not have wanted it more for a bunch of Great Sprinters. SW Sprinters put it down.
I had splits as follows:
Blair DeSio—-50.03
Antwon Dussett—48.48
Leon Bullard—-50.59
Edward Winslow—-50.35
Did anyone get a good resolution photo of them standing behind the time clock? I would love to use it on the SWS website.
Linda
Hi, Linda. Feel free to pull the shot I posted near 6 p.m. Pacific.
From the left that would be Blair DeSio out of Penn State, Ed Winslow out of the Univ of Rhode Island, Leon Bullard out of Wake Forest University, and Antwon Dussett out of Grambling State University.
Amanda Scotti’s comeback from injury is noted in her local paper, which reminded me (painfully) that she’s still faster than me (by about a tenth in the 100).
http://www.folsomtelegraph.com/article/7/30/14/scotti-sprints-past-knee-problems
Ken, how on earth did you see that article from our little local paper?
Just happy to be runnin’, just happy to be there!
Three words, Amanda: Google News Alerts. (I specify “masters track” and hope for something to pop up.)
Great effort, fellas. Very, very impressive.
Huge congrats to those guys! I have a lot of respect for the way that you approach your races/meets. Quality.
Amazing feat indeed!! Dang!!! Hope to run against some of them at Penn Relays 2015.
Congratulations! I would enjoy hearing more from each about their training for this meet and how they concluded on who would compose the relay.
many highschool 4×4 teams would be thrilled with 3:19+..for these masters guys to do it is a wonderful accomplishment ..my hat’s off to them.!
Strange as it may seem, I think this record is still underappreciated. They beat the M35 record, which had held up for 9 years, and they did it with a 45-year-old guy anchoring!!
I recommend that everyone watch the video at least twice at the USATF Web site to appreciate how wonderful this was.
I am reminded of one other record at this level — the 3:20.83 by Sal Allah, Kevin Morning, Ed Gonera (then 48 years old, if I recall correctly), and Ray Blackwell. That M40 world mark was achieved 13 years ago at the Penn Relays. What’s the current record? Yes, it’s still 3:20.83.
The M35 record should be much faster. It’s also possible the listed record isn’t accurate, given the state of masters records.
Yes, it should be (much faster). I’m making a big deal of this because of the ages of the runners, with only two of them (Dussett and Bullard) under the age of 43. In a way, their effort at Winston-Salem should be compared to what could be done by an M40 team.
Had these men all been in the M35 group I would not have waxed so rhapsodic. In addition, they’d all run earlier in the meet and thus were not 100% fresh. Antwon Dussett, for example, had his 200 final (which he won in 22.07) scheduled for just 1 hr and 58 minutes before the 4 x 400.
Congrats gentlemen! Well done.
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