Tom Langenfield of Minnesota, the M70 Orono HJ champion, reports an impressive world record in his age group by a Swede. Tom writes: “One of the many reasons I wanted very much to go to Italy for the world meet this year was to have a chance to jump against Sweden’s Carl-Erik Sarndal in the M70 high jump. As a 69-year-old, Sarndal had by far the best M65 high jump in the world this year at 1.58 — a performance that suggested he would blow away the M70 record as soon as he turned 70. Well, he turned 70 on July 17, and a month and a day later he won the Swedish M70 championship at 1.59 (just under 5-3), a new Swedish, Scandinavian and European record – and 7 centimeters (2¾ inches) over Bud Held’s 1.52 (4-11 3/4) world record!

Tom continues:

That’s a very substantial improvement – and a performance that I believe ranks pretty much in the same age-graded range as Thomas Zacharias’s 1.80 at age 60 and 1.84 at 59.”
As things turned out, I wasn’t able to enter the world meet this time around — a major disappointment for me. But I’ll be watching results closely to see what Sarndal can come up with in Riccione. Be interested to find out if he’s a straddler or a flopper. Either way, he’s joined Zacharias (a straddler) in raising the bar on performance projections for older jumpers.

Too bad Tom isn’t Italy-bound.
But he’s had a great season, topped by his Orono title and a generous mention in a blog devoted to Minnesota track and field.
Charlie Mahler wrote of Tom:

Jim Dilling isn’t the only person in this state who can high jump.
Tom Langenfeld of Minneapolis returned from last week’s USA Masters Outdoor Championship in Orono, Maine with yet another high jump title. The 72-year-old Langenfeld cleared 4-8 1/4 to win the M70 division of the event.
“At this point it’s something of an exaggeration to say I won the high jump. Medium jump would be more accurate,” the modest Langenfeld said.
The victory was, mind-bogglingly, Langenfeld’s 16th USA Master title in the event.
“This was my seventh consecutive national outdoor high jump championship (2001-2007) – so I feel pretty good about that,” he said. “I also won the first five I entered after turning 40 way back in the previous century (1975-79).”
“[I] didn’t do as well in the in-between years, winning just four high jump championships from 1980 to 2000 (’86, ’91, ’98 and ’99). I blame injuries some and tougher competition a lot. But I did manage a couple of triple jump championships during that period.”
Langenfeld was quick to note that 87-year-old part-time Minnesota resident Ralph Maxwell also stood atop the podium for a high jump victory. Maxwell won uncontested victories in the high jump (3-7 1/4) and short hurdles (20.00), setting records in both events.
Here’s the list of Minnesota participants and results at the championships, generously supplied by Langenfeld:
Ralph Maxwell, 87, of Alamo, Texas, but who spends the warmer months in Richville, Minnesota
1st M85 high jump (1.10m) (uncontested but broke the meet record)
1st M85 short hurdles (80m) (20.00) (uncontested but better than listed American record)
2nd M65 long jump (3.41m)
2nd M85 triple jump (6.32m)
3rd M85 100m (18.34)
Thom Weddle, 68, Minneapolis
2nd M65 5000m (20:08.30)
2nd M65 10000m (42:41.50)
Jim Schoffman, 54, Fridley
4th M50 200m (25.99)
6th M50 100m (12.95)
Jim narrowly missed qualifying for the finals in the 400m; ranked 10th
Shawn Regan, 57, Minneapolis
5th M55 800m (2:22.28)
11th M55 1500m (5:07.72)
John Patterson, 40, Cottage Grove
5th M40 200m (24.32)
6th M40 100m (12.03) (11.88 in 1st round)
Patrick O’Regan, 60, Inver Grover Heights
Competed in the heats in the M60 200m (14th) and 400m (10th)
Tom Langenfeld, 72, Edina
1st M70 high jump (1.43m)

Tom also wrote me:

My Orono performance was 40 centimeters (16 inches) below what I was able to do in my first national masters meet 32 years ago. But along the way there have been occasional year-to-year improvements and, every once in a while, a brief but emphatic triumph over time and gravity every bit as satisfying as the best of those youthful leaps of long ago.
I came up a little short of expectations in Orono – no emphatic triumphs there – but was soothed somewhat to learn that I had the best age-graded mark among the high jump age-group winners (a gratifying discovery on one hand, but probably a further indication that the tables may be a little too kind to us older competitors).