Sorensen’s debut as M40: American record in 800

So it begins. Two days after turning 40, Jim Sorensen brought down his first age-group record, beating Johnny Gray’s listed outdoor American Record for 800. Jim ran 1:51.57 at yesterday’s Occidental Invitational near Los Angeles, where results show he was the 19th-fastest overall. He thus broke Gray’s 1:52.42 set at the 2000 Olympic Trials in Sacramento. (However, M40 Gray ran 1:48.81 indoors in March 2001). The M40 world record is Briton Colm Rothery’s 1:50.69 from 2000.

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May 13, 2007

7 Responses

  1. Tony Young - May 13, 2007

    Lots of good stuff happening now in the masters middle distance! Jim in the 40’s, John doing damage in the 45’s, & Nolan in the (what is he?) 55’s.
    Keep going Jim!

  2. Mark Cleary - May 13, 2007

    Ken, Colm Rothery is from Ireland not from England.Great athlete with a very witty sense of humor–He won the first Drake Masters Mile in 2002 in a gail storm finishing in 4:16 the top American in that race was either Mike Egle or Pete Magill at 4:23–I really thought his World record would be safe for many years–it’s a really exciting time for Masters Track & Field in the U.S. right now.

  3. Don Brown - May 14, 2007

    Two days after turning 40, Jim Sorensen brought down his first age-group record for the 800 meter with a outdoor time of 1:51.57 . Mr. Sorensen next official track meet run is expected to be in June at Occidental Invitational near Los Angeles. His goal is to run the 1500 meter and challenge the M40 record.
    His 1500 meter run is exciting to watch since he likes to fall back to last and kick it out on the last 300 meters.
    Way to go on the 800 meter run!
    Best of luck Jim !

  4. Matt - May 14, 2007

    What happened to the guy from Spain was it, that ran a 1:49 or so last year was that not legit?

  5. Don Brown - May 15, 2007

    Don’t know the guy about Spain but Jimmy broke the American record and not the WR. Was at booth and the WR is in the 1:50 area.
    So don’t know why the WR is not 1:49.
    Perhaps the Spainyard did it outside the USA or did deal with paying anfd doing the paperwork to enter the record?
    Also, you have to get lots of signatures after you race to apply for the record books. The record holder had to get the signatures (at OXY meet) and took about 2 hours. It was hard for the judges to find Jim because he was in the second 800M race and the booth could not identify him on the video.
    He was number 10 and the number was not legible because of the angle and another runner partially blocked it.

  6. Jim - May 15, 2007

    They initially couldnt find me because they were looking in heat one. I was in heat two. Once they looked at the right picture/video, it was obvious.

  7. Tony - May 16, 2007

    Looks like Jim is fit and ready to rewrite most of the 40’s marks. His 1:51 half is a great start. I hope that he can get the marks consolidated, not just John Hinton’s 3:49 official mark, but my 3:46.41 “unofficial” mark from 04/26/2003 @ the Oregon Inv.
    I ran a 1:52.5, right before that, so I know that Jim is ready.
    Good luck

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