Orville Rogers pops M90 American record for 3000 at Kamloops
Running essentially by himself, Orville Rogers of Dallas set an American indoor record for 3,000 meters yesterday at Kamloops worlds. At 92, Orville is the oldest member of Team USA. But he showed kids how it’s done with his 22:57.41, which beat the listed U.S. M90 record of 23:12.34 by Frank Levine in 2005. Two years ago, USATF made Orville its oldest Athlete of the Week after he set a couple of world records at Boston indoor nationals. Other world records at Kamloops are detailed by the LOC media office.
Orville Rogers, shown at 2008 Spokane nationals, runs everything from the sprints on up. (Photo by Ken Stone)
Here’s the latest meet summary for Kamloopsfolk:
DAY 4 — Thursday, March 4
Germany is celebrating some multi-medal performances at these 2010 WMA World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships.Horst Albrecht is leading the team with five gold medals in the men’s 85 age group. On Thursday, he won the Long Jump with a leap of 2.77 metres. That, on top of earlier victorious performances in the 60m Dash, the 200m, the Indoor Pentathlon and the 3,000m Race Walk. Albrecht will try to add to his golden haul when he competes in the 60m Hurdles on Friday and the Triple Jump on Saturday.
Incidentally, Harry Thompson of Powell River, B.C., twice finished behind Albrecht to claim silver in the 60m and 200m races, but won gold in the 800m. Thompson will try to duplicate that winning performance in the 400m and 1,500m, both Saturday.Meanwhile, Christiane Wippersteg has won four medals for the German team. Wippersteg won silver medals in the W80 Shot Put, Javelin and Discus — she was runner-up to Rachel Hanssens of Belgium in all three. On Thursday, Wippersteg finally struck gold when she won the High Jump with a leap of 0.85m.
The Australians also have something to cheer about — in particular, the four gold medals thus far won by Marie Kay in the W50 age group. Kay has been victorious in the 200m, Long Jump and Indoor Pentathlon — the latter with a world record-setting total of 4,906 points. On Thursday, she nearly had another record in the High Jump, but couldn’t reach 1.56m and had to settle for a winning leap of 1.50m. Kay will try for a fifth gold medal when the 400m preliminaries open Friday.
As events were winding down Thursday, the United States led the medal standings with 193, including 82 gold. Canada had 175 medals (59 gold), followed by Germany’s 79 (33 gold) and Australia’s 39 (15 gold).
To no one’s surprise, Olga Kotelko of West Vancouver, B.C., established two more world records Thursday. The 91-year-old continues to blaze new territory; she’s often the only one in her age group, so her biggest motivation is setting new records. Kotelko leaped 0.75 metres and added another gold medal to her collection in the W90 high jump. There hadn’t been a WMA indoor record in that discipline before; in fact, Kotelko owns the W85 mark of 0.89m.
Kotelko also won the W90 Hammer Throw with a toss of 13.92m. That bettered the 13.13m of Ruth Frith of Australia.
Kotelko now has won seven gold medals and set five world records thus far this week. While medals are lovely souvenirs, having fun is the main goal of most competitors at these championships.
Take, for instance, the Crockett brothers of British Columbia.
Ken Crockett of Kamloops is competing in 10 events in the M55 age group. The 57-year-old is joined here this week by his two brothers — Dan, 63, who hails from Kelowna, and Steve, 55, who lives in the family’s hometown of Keremeos. Dan is competing in four events in the M60 age group. He made the finals in the 60m and 800m races, and is still to compete in the 400m and 4x200m relays. Steve entered two events in the M55 age group — the 60m and the Long Jump.
In fact, sibling bragging rights were on the line when Ken and Steve went head-to-head Thursday afternoon in the Long Jump. Ken came out on top, finishing fourth with a leap of 4.66m. Steve was right behind in fifth after jumping 4.49m. Jouko Nikula of Finland had the winning jump of 5.68m.
“He said he was going to beat me, but I said no way,” Ken said of little brother Steve, with a laugh.
Ken, by the way, finished eighth in the Discus on Thursday with a throw of 26.64m, and qualified sixth in the 400m after crossing the line in 61.70. That final goes Saturday.
2 Responses
Kudos to Orville Rogers. 92 and still going strong.
Kachingle Blog : Pardon this brief commercial interruption and 3K post celebration (by Ken Stone of MastersTrack) - March 9, 2010
[…] Kachingle. And I’m celebrating a major milestone: 3,000 entries on this blog since January 2003. (The 3,000th dealt with a 3000-meter record.) Whew! Thanks for your continued loyalty! –Ken Stone, […]
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