New AR for M40 100: Gault finally takes down Hart
Thanks to a post by T&FN editor Garry Hill, I’ve learned of a new American record in a marquee event — the M40 100-meter dash. Results of Saturday’s Occidental Invitational show ex-NFL star Willie Gault, now 44, with a legal time of 10.73 in the 100-meter dash, which had a wind reading of 0.6 meters per second (1.4 mph). That takes down the venerable 10.87 by Munich Olympian Eddie Hart, set way back in 1989.
Of course, athletes like Willie often show up, run fast and go out for a beer — neglecting a few key steps toward record ratification (like getting a half-dozen meet officials to sign a record application). Have no idea whether anyone at Oxy (near Los Angeles) had a clue they were dealing with an American masters record.
The world record, of course, is 10.29 by Troy Douglas of Holland, set in 2003. (Pay no attention to the WMA records site, which credits him with an M40 world record of 10.42.)
Willie, interestingly, shows HSI as his club affiliation. Pretty cool that a world-class professional team has made room for a geezer.
I find it ironic that Garry Hill, the curmudgeon-in-chief of “The Bible of Track & Field” should be the one to notice Gault’s amazing mark. Garry once famously said: “The only people who give a rat’s ass about Masters track are those few people who actively compete.”
Maybe he’s changed his mind.
Also at Oxy, others masters made some nice showings:
M40 Danny Martinez ran the 5000 in 14:43.17.
M40 Kettrell Berry ran the 400 in 51.23.
M40 Tom Vanzant high jumped 1.90m (6-02.75).
On the same day, down at Long Beach State University, just-turned-50 Keith Nelson was over the bar twice at 1.90, but dislodged it, missing an American Record for his age group at the Striders Meet of Champions. He’ll eventually bring down Herm Wyatt’s 22-year-old M50 AR of 1.88 (6-2).
Keith, whose approach run for the flop starts in another ZIP code, already hold the AR for M45: 1.98.
One Response
Glad it was posted, I was just about to point out that Aaron Thigpen(40) ran 10.79 at Modesto on Saturday as well.
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