Remember Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa? Short world-class sprinter of the late ’60s, early ’70s? Excelled indoors? Well, he’s not making a comeback (that I know of). But he has an American doppelganger. Meet Kaestner McDonnough of Virginia. He’s an M50 sprinter — 5-4 tall — who’s been active in masters for a decade. But he’s finally gotten some ink in his hometown paper — and crossed my radar. Nice story below focuses on his Boston foray.

Here’s the story, should the link go bye-bye:

Former high school, college runner making a triumphant return
BY FRED JETER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Friday, April 13, 2007
As an instrument electrician, Kaestner McDonnough’s job is to make sure everything is up and running at Philip Morris. Athletically, he rarely runs low on energy, either.
The native Jamaican is a 5-4 power plant in his own right. At a very spry 50, he ranks with the nation’s most fleet age-group sprinters.
After some 20 years of sporting inactivity (“all I did was work,” he recalls), McDonnough took up track in the late’90s to share an activity with his son, Steve. He jokes now that he has “outlasted” Steve, a VCU senior and former Benedictine track and field standout.
“Steve ran one year at VCU on scholarship,” McDonnough said. “Then he quit, and I kept going.”
He has no inclination to tap the brakes, either.
On a March 23-25 trip to Boston’s Reggie Lewis Sports Complex, McDonnough earned a silver medal in the 200-meter dash at the USA Masters Track and Field Indoor Championships.
His 25.03 fully-automatic clocking was second (50-54 age bracket) only to the 24.28 recorded by Tom Smith of Fort Wayne, Ind. He finished fifth at 60 meters after registering the third-fastest preliminary clocking.
“I must have been busy thinking about something else when the gun went off,” he said. “I got a slow start out of the blocks.”
McDonnough ran a 7.75 in the prelims, but settled for 7.81 in the final – won by Smith in 7.50.
McDonnough, who was born in Jamaica, moved to New York City at age 12. He ran track in high school and one season at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. The next year, he transferred to City College of New York and tossed his spikes into the back of the closet.
“I’d lost the Olympic dream,” he recalled.
Kaestner and Dr. Jackie McDonnough (VCU assistant professor of Science Education) moved to Richmond 22 years ago and have resided in the same house in Hyland Park for 20 years. While Kaestner is a pure sprinter, Jackie prefers distance runs. She ran in the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K two weeks ago.
Kaestner trains solo at George Wythe High and also with the Pony Express Track Club, coached by Joe Mack, a guidance counselor at J.R. Tucker.
On tap is an April 28 trip to the Penn Relays, where he will run in the 100 meters and on a 400 relay.
Noting he is “always the shortest man on the starting line,” McDonnough makes up for his relative short stature with rapid-fire leg turnover. He said new training regiment will enable him to improve on his more recent times. The bold-letter dates on his outdoors slate are Sept. 2-3, when the USA Nationals will be held in Orono, Maine.
McDonnough pegs improved stamina to two classes at American Family Fitness-Mechanicsville – a step aerobics session under Melissa Miller and “boot camp,” directed by Dion Foxx.
“My goal this spring is an 11.5, and my best last year was 12.1,” he said confidently of the 100 meters.
At the half-century mark – an age when most men’s headlights are flickering – McDonnough vows to turn up the switch.