Penn Relays on tap — a masters extravaganza
If it’s late April, it must be time for the best masters relaying of the season. The Penn Relays are here. Masters run Friday and Saturday, often right smack in the middle of the busiest times. Olympians and masters, cheek-by-jowl in a jampacked Philly stadium. The Penn masters relays are often world-record attempts, and this year is no exception. SpeedWest TC is going for the M40 4×4 record.
The current M40 record is 3:20.83 by the New York-based team of Sal Allah, Kevin Morning, Ed Gonera and Ray Blackwell — set at Penn in 2001. That’s an average 50.2 seconds per leg. Smoking.
Can Speedwest of Southern California (mainly) average under 50?
We’ll see around 5:10 Saturday afternoon.
Here’s the schedule:
Masters on Friday:
118 Masters Men 4×100 “40 and older” 12:20 PM
119 Masters Mixed 4×100 “50 and older” 12:22 PM
120 Masters Mixed 4×100 “60 and older” 12:24 PM
145 Masters Men 100m dash “40 and older” 2:45 PM
146 Masters Men 100m dash “45 and older” 2:49 PM
147 Masters Men 100m dash “50 and older” 2:51 PM
148 Masters Men 100m dash “55 and older” 2:53 PM
149 Masters Men 100m dash “60 and older” 2:55 PM
150 Masters Men 100m dash “65 and older” 2:57 PM
155 Masters Mixed 4×400 “50 and older” 4:15 PM
Masters on Saturday:
181 Masters Men 10k Racewalk 7:00 AM
184 Masters Women 5000m Racewalk 8:00 AM
260 Masters Men 100m dash “75 and older” 3:55 PM
270 Masters Men 4×400 “40 and older” 5:10 PM
BTW, the reason that relays are faster here than anywhere else is because athletes are allowed to team with anyone. No USATF restrictions on makeup of quartets. As long as relay members are all from the same country, they’re eligible to set world records. At nationals (and worlds), individual events take primacy. So after days of pounding, relays see athletes running on fumes. Thus records generally are reserved for one-time events like Penn.
This year, sadly, no Everett Hosack in the 75-and-older dash. He appeared at Penn several years ago as an M100 and blew the crowd away. He died last year, and he’s sorely missed.
One Response
Ken
The team that will be making an attempt at the M40-49 4×400 world record this weekend at the Penn Relays will not be representing Speedwest T.C… The members of the team are David Jones, Dallas,Tx, Kettrell Berry San Diego,Ca, Jim Chinn San Marcos,Ca and Paul Brown Lawrenceville, Ga.
Kettrell Berry
San Diego
Thanks for the Shout-Out Ken
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