Pete Mundle’s ‘Masters Age Records’ now online

The latest edition of Pete Mundle’s “Masters Age Records” — single-age track and field bests that he’s compiled for decades — is now online here as a PDF document. I scanned the 60-page booklet to goose my wiki age-records project. How do I get away with posting this? Glad you asked. First off, MAR (as it’s known) is not copyrighted. Doubt it ever was. Second, I wrote to MAR’s publisher, Randy Sturgeon at National Masters News, and got the green light. After I wrote Randy about my hopes of posting the MAR, he replied today: “I think it is a good thing.”


Randy continued: “For example, we publish the (USA masters) rankings . . . online. If people want a hard copy (of the rankings or the MAR), they can order from us. It would be great if we could (get) more accurate info and this is a way to do it.”
Pete Mundle’s take? He wrote me three weeks ago that he wanted to discuss this with Randy. (I have no idea whether he has.) Pete has not explicitly objected to the online posting. So I’m taking this as a “go.”
So here’s my dream and appeal:
1. Download the MAR.
2. Pick an event you like, and start typing (or copy-pasting) the information into that event’s page in the age-records wiki.
3. Using the WMA records site or the IAAF Top Lists as references, fix the errors or omissions in the MAR.
The most egregious omissions are at the oldest end of the age spectrum. Many M90-plus records are simply absent from the MAR. They deserve to be on record, for public consumption (Don Pellmann’s many M90 records, for example.) And some Everett Hosack M100 records.
When time avails, I’ll check for typos and do the proofreading thing. (My career is in newspaper copy editing.)
Many hands make light work. Many fingers make keyboarding the MAR less a monumental chore. Spread the word. Tell your friends about this project.
This is what the Net is all about — collaboration and cooperation. In masters track, we’ve gone way too long without an accurate representation of single-age records. Let’s use Pete’s work as the starting point of a records list that meets the high standards we all aspire to.
Thanks for your help.

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February 20, 2007

4 Responses

  1. Jeff Davison - February 20, 2007

    I would like to thank Peter Mundle for all of his efforts with the single-age and five-year records. Peter has been assisting with the task since the early 1970’s . . . hats off to the very difficult work that he has performed for a very long time, and at very little pay. Peter was assisting with these efforts long before the internet was available.
    This has enable others to take the torch and build and improve upon the prior efforts.
    Once again, thank you Peter.
    Regards,
    Jeff Davison

  2. John Altendorf - February 21, 2007

    Ken,
    Do these records distinguish between indoor and outdoor, or is the list a combination?
    – John

  3. Ken Stone - February 21, 2007

    Yes, Pete’s MAR is a combo of indoor and outdoor records, with the indoor marks denoted with an “i.” (It makes no sense to ignore Eamonn’s 3:58.15 mile at age 41 or Johnny Gray’s 1:48.8 in the 800 at age 40 — both indoors).

  4. Jeff Davison - January 18, 2019

    1972 to 2006 now online at
    http://mastershistory.org/masters-meet-and-club-records/

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