Every time you look around, another M35 sprint star shows up. The latest is Christopher Williams, whose IAAF profile shows him as 36. At Saturday’s Reebok meet in New York, where some kid named Bolt ran a quick 100, Christopher took fourth in the deuce with a legal 20.75. He also had the fastest reaction time in the field (at 0.157 second). On May 17, Chris ran the 1 in 10.30, making him quicker than even American Jeff Laynes, 37, who has a 10.31 this year. So nice run, CW! Keep it up. (BTW, the listed M35 WR is 20.40 by Britain’s Linford Christie in 1996, but Christopher ran 20.17 a year ago at age 35 — also at the Reebok meet. Linford has an unrecognized 20.11 as an M35, however.)

Tony Young’s M45 world record yesterday was captured by a sainted soul in Portland and posted here on RunnerSpace.com. Notable about the race was how Pete Magill, 46, and Jon Swanson, 36, served as rabbits for almost 800. Pete fell to third place but came back incredibly strong to beat Jon, passing the youngster with 200 meters to go. (Too bad the meet announcer had no clue he was watching a world record!) Tony’s speed was revealed Wednesday when he ran the 800 in 1:56.9 at an all-comers meet — less than 3 seconds off the M45 world record of 1:54.18 by Sal Allah in July 2005.

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Tony Young of Seattle and Club Northwest today lowered the M45 mile world record, clocking 4:16.09 at age 46. The listed WR is 4:16.75 by New Zealand’s David Sirl in 1987. (The listed AR is 4:18.83 by Ken Sparks in 1990.) Pete Magill of South Pasadena, California, also 46, pushed Tony with a runner-up time of 4:21.34 at the invitational Masters Mile at the Portland Track Festival at Mt. Hood Community College. Nolan Shaheed of Pasadena, 58, was ninth in 4:43.85 — just off the 4:40.4 M55 WR by Australia’s Jack Ryan in 1977. Nolan holds the M55 American record of 4:42.7, set a year ago in Canby, Oregon. Nice job, gents!

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W35 multi-eventer Kimiko Nakatake sends word of a big-time single-event meet in Minnesota. Kimiko reports the 2nd Annual Kangaroo High Jump Festival. It’s Saturday, June 21, at Apple Valley High School — 20 minutes from Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. “They are contesting HS division and College/Open division,” Kimiko says, “but the meet director has extended the invitation to masters athletes. (Meet director Hugo Munoz) told me two masters male jumpers have already signed up, and I’m planning to compete as well. Hope we can get more masters high jumpers out there.”

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Many masters athletes are coaches. But not many are tutoring 16-year-old sophomores who high jump 7 feet. That’s the privileged position held by M40 jumper Ron Lee, who assists at JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, in south Orange County. This weekend, the supersoph, Harrison Steed, will compete in the California State Meet, with Ron crossing his fingers. Ron has coached Harrison for several years. Darn good job, too, as this recent column details.

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Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue likes guns and geezerjocks. This month, he gave the NRA another popsicle. “With Perdue’s signature, restaurant patrons will be permitted to carry a firearm, but would be barred from drinking while doing so,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Violations would be a misdemeanor. Concealed weapons will now be allowed in state and local parks. Guns in purses or under jackets will also be allowed on public transportation.” But Sonny also supports masters track, honoring M80 champion Bill Daprano. Bill (at left) shared this photo:

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G’bye, Larry.

Larry Barnum, a world champion masters sprinter, had his own farewell piece in National Masters News. Writing under the heading “A Little Off Track,” Larry mused about the trend at NMN to focus on distance runners: “How do you keep NMN’s base of track and field athletes if you feature long distance road running too often or feature triathlons? Yet, to be successful, ya gotta focus on where the crowds are. And, of course, that’s running. Road and cross county.” So there it is — a confirmation that NMN is going to the roads. Some jumpers, throwers, sprinters and hurdlers might argue that NMN is going to the dogs, however.

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G’bye, Carmel.

Carmel Papworth-Barnum wasn’t managing editor of National Masters News for long. Just short of a year. But she made many friends at the helm of our flagship publication. Now she’s done with the NMN gig, as reported here recently. Her cheerful editor’s column will be missed. But her valedictory is worth more than newsprint reproduction, so I asked Carmel for a digital copy. It’s posted below. Thanks, Carmel! And as the Aussies say in admiration: “Good on you!” (We’ll see you on the masters circuit, though! Stay relaxed.)

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David O’Meara is 20 percent done with his quest to run 20 mile-runs under 5 minutes this summer. His results page shows he’s clocked 4:42. 4:50, 4:28 and 4:47. (That third one was a road mile downhill, which helps.) On Memorial Day, his most recent race, he ran in Boardman, Ohio. His blog has no details yet on that race. Next up is the popular State Street Mile in Santa Barbara, which also runs downhill toward the Pacific. That event is June 1. Then five days later he journeys to Eugene for another road mile. Four down and 16 to go, Dave!

Among the many great events at Saturday’s Striders Meet of Champions was a deep and fast 3,000-meter run. I’ve posted complete meet results, but consider these unofficial (I note a few typos). Also posted are results from the Southeasten Masters meet (aka Bob Boal Open and Masters) May 2-3 in Raleigh, North Carolina. In the Striders’ 3K at Cerritos College, M45 Pete Magill clocked 8:36.92 — just off the American record of in 8:36.86 he set in March. He described the race in a post.

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