Roald Bradstock may throw in British Olympic Trials—at age 50!
Roald Bradstock’s impossible dream just got less impossible. He may not throw jav in the 2012 London Olympics, but he’ll fall only one meet short. Over the weekend, he threw the spear 71.83 meters (235-8) at age 48, and thinks he qualified for the British Olympic Trials! Roald, who memorably threw in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2008, writes: “I began my season yesterday in Clermont. Florida. In my first competition of 2011, on my second throw I broke three record … Set a new the UK Masters Record! Broke my own world (single-)age record!! Qualified for the 2012 UK Olympic Trials???”
Roald (center) with fellow M55 Mike Brown (left) and M60 Martin Menkin.
Roald provided these details:
I drove 500 miles down to Orlando, Florida, from Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday, January 7th. The competition was held at the National Training Center in Clermont Fl.
At 11 a.m. Saturday, January 8th, on my second throw of the competition, I threw 71.83. . . .This throw broke the 12-year-old UK Masters Record of 71.51 (234-7) held by Peter Yates since 1999. It also broke my own world age (48) record of 71.07 (233-2) set in May 2010. And since the qualifying period for the 2012 UK Olympic Trials started last Saturday January 1st, 2011, that distance should qualify me now for my eighth Olympic Trials next year when I will be 50 years old. I also believe that I am the very first person to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials period. (Please direct any inquires to Ian Hodge at fasttrack with regards any and all details about qualifying requirements / entries for next year’s UK Olympic Trials: )
As good as yesterday’s performance was, I believe there is a lot more to come. For the past eight years I have improved 5 to 7 meters in competitions later on in the proper season…. In addition to that, I am also in a heavy weight cycle right now, so I am pretty beaten up. Also, 48 hours before I threw yesterday I could barely walk due to both my legs had cramped up so badly.Training this winter has been going extremely well. The problem I am having, though, this year is fighting a never ending list of injuries. I blogged about what I am going through on Inside the Games last week.
It was great to see Andy Vince yesterday who was the meet the director for the competition. Andy is a fellow Brit and former GB International shot putter and GB Junior International team mate of mine from some 30 years ago. As a fellow athlete and coach I took his advice yesterday and stopped after my third throw, saving myself for another day.
Results sheet from Saturday's meet at Clermont, Florida.
5 Responses
Nice work, Roald! Hopefully, this is a sign that you will have a great season in 2011. Would also like to add a minor correction to the photo caption: Mike Brown is in the M55 age group, and is the world record holder for that group, while Roald is still in M45. And at 62.79m, Mike had a nice first meet performance as well…
Oops, sorry about Mike’s age group. I fixed it.
Age is just a number. Tell that to Merlene or Dana.
Honey, Nice job.
I am proud of you. It was a great decision changing your nationality again.
The flip flop strategy works well.
I ran the 60 m at Clermont on Sat. I pulled a hamstring and fell. I snapped my femur,etc etc. I am looking for a video of my race. I would really like to see how I was doing before my track career came to an abrupt close.
Doug Malmberg
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