Tony McManus

New Zealand’s Tony McManus, a masters champion since at least the 1990s, ran an outdoor mile in 4:53.29 on February 20 to break the listed M60 world age-group record of 4:54.07 by Holland’s Joop Ruter in 1993. The mile WR came in Christchurch “in front of a small but vocal crowd,” reported Tony’s club site. I hadn’t heard of this great mark until last night. The discovery came as I researched Tony’s background after his near-miss at the M60 world record for 1500 at New Zealand’s masters outdoor nationals in Christchurch. (Results are here.) Tony ran the 15 over the weekend in 4:29.01, which age-grades to an open equivalent of 3:31.04. The listed M60 WR for 1500 is 4:27.65 by fellow Kiwi Ron Robertson. On March 18, Tony ran the 1500 in 4:28.61. (Tony’s marks should help motivate fellow M60 miler Nolan Shaheed, who ran the 1500 in 4:31.33 recently.) The Kiwi meet was low-key but had some amazing metric miles, which also included W60 Lois Reed’s 5:44.66 (4:05.47 age-graded), M45 Richard Bennett’s 4:07.67 (3:41.60) and M50 Robin Grant’s 4:24.97 (3:42.61). The best sprinter was probably M60 Laurie Malcolmson, who ran the 100 in 12.76 (10.68) and 200 in 26.27 (21.15).

Here’s a nice little profile about Tony after his mile WR:

Christchurch athlete Tony McManus joined New Zealand’s illustrious line of world record holders for the mile on Saturday 20 February, when he set a new mark of 4min53.29sec for the over-60 age group at QEII Stadium in Christchurch in front of a small but vocal crowd. McManus, a former New Zealand cycling champion and one of New Zealand’s top masters runners over the past 20 years, set the record in an interclub meet in his hometown, breaking the previous record of 4min54.07sec, set by Joop Ruter of the Netherlands back in 1993.

Aside from NZ’s well documented history in the open ranks, with the world mile record having been held by three New Zealanders in the last 77 years (Jack Lovelock 4:07.6 in 1933, Peter Snell twice – 3:54.4 in 1962 and 3:54.1 in 1964, and John Walker’s historic 3:49.4 in 1975, the first time the 3:50 barrier had been broken), McManus now becomes the third New Zealander to currently hold a world age-group record, joining Derek Turnbull (M65, 4:56.4, held since 1992) and Walker, who at the age of 36 was still running at the top international level, and in 1988 set a world record for the 35-39 age group of 3:52.48.

McManus was typically modest about his achievement, but said that he left everything out on the track. “I could see coming down the straight that I only had about 10sec left, and I still seemed to be a long way out, so I just put my head down and went for it” McManus said later.

The race was perfectly judged, with each lap needing to be run in around 73sec, and McManus being within a second of that split on every lap of the race. He paid tribute to the other runners in the race, who kept the race honest in the sometimes windy conditions.

“I couldn’t have done it without them,” he said.

McManus turned 60 in October last year, and won the M60 grade of the 1500m at the World Masters Games in Sydney later that month. He is now looking at other M60 records to attempt, and says: “The 1500m record would be pretty special, as it’s held by another New Zealander Ron Robertson [4:27.65, set in 2001] but the 3000m and 5000m records look like they might be worth a crack as well,” said McManus.

Judging by the determination shown by McManus on Saturday, it would be a brave punter who would bet against him.