Guess it’s great to be just north of 65. Nadine O’Connor’s vault record is the tip of the iceberg. Germany’s Kurt Goldschmidt, throwing at a Hamburg meet on May 21, put the shot 15.90 meters (52-2), raising his own M65 world record of 15.78 (51-9 1/4) from last year. Kurt also tossed the discus 50.55 (165-10)  (Results are here.)  Halfway around the world, the M65  Aussie quartet of Neville McIntyre, Heinz Steinmann, Col Buyers and Tony Ireland set a world record in the 4×4 of 4:02.62 in April at Aussie nationals in Adelaide, beating the listed record of 4:09.08 by a German squad in 2005. (See results here.) The same squad (with Rob McDonald replacing Ireland) also set a national record in the 4×1 of 50.5, missing the world age-group record of 50.13. Nice efforts, gents!

From left are Heinz Steinmann, Tony Ireland, Nev McIntyre and Col Buyers.

Here’s a story about a 4×4 athlete:

Pinkett athlete Neville McIntyre is now a world record holder after teaming with three other Australian masters to smash the 4 x 400m relay record by more than six seconds.

The run was the pinnacle of the Australian Masters Athletics National Championships held in Adelaide over the Easter weekend and was the perfect finish to a highly successful meet for the 66 year old.

Mr McIntyre teamed with Queenslanders Heinz Steinmann and Col Buyers and Sydney-based Tony Ireland to break the previous record for the M65 (65-69 years) divsion event, set by a team from Germany in 2005.

The team finished in a time of 4.02.62 shattering the previous record of 4.09.08. McIntyre said the team went into the race in ideal conditions.

“We were pretty blessed. It was good weather, none of the runners were hurt and the crowd was all for us,” he said.

“It really didn’t sink in until the next day when I started thinking, ‘we’re world record holders’.”

The same team also broke the Australian record for the 4 x 100m relay in a time of 50.4seconds. This was a mere 0.3 seconds off the world record time.

Mr McIntyre won a further two gold medals in individual track events. He took a further 0.18 seconds off his own Australian record set last year in the 60m event with a time of 8.23 seconds. His fourth gold came in the 100m finishing the sprint in a time of 12.89 seconds.

The 200m gold was within reach as well but McIntyre fell just short against current world champion Col Buyers. In addition he took silver in the 400m behind Buyers.

The six medals resulted in Mr McIntyre being the more than worthy male sprint champion of champions for the second year in a row that was announced at the conclusion of the meet.

He said he is continuing to strive to be the best in his field and believes with the right mentality it can be achieved.

“I’ve developed a faith that if the mind believes it the body can achieve it. I have had less injuries in the lead up to the event which meant I was in the right shape,” he said.

Mr McIntyre said most of the time he trained alone racing himself with a stopwatch in hand but also valued the fact that there was such high quality competitors in Australia.

“Four of the top six in the M65 age group are from Australia and that was the four of us in the relay team. It is great to have people of such a level to prepare me for the bigger races.”

Mr McIntyre will now turn his focus to the World Masters Athletics Championships to be held in Lahti, Finland from July 28 to August 8