Back to Roger Ruth. This time, he does some heavy lifting by compiling masters (35 and over) on the 2008 world open seasonal shot put lists. He found 13 men and 13 women, with the best guy going 68-2 1/2. Keep in mind that this would have been a world record as recently as 1965. (Here’s the WR progression.) But Roger’s list doesn’t mention American Rich Harrison, an M35 noted on mastersrankings.com as throwing the 16-pound ball 17.45 (57-3). Oh well. Meanwhile, the top American on Roger’s list (Jim Dunkleberger) isn’t listed on mastersrankings.com. Oh well again.

The top masters woman of 2008, Russia’s Irina Khudoroshkina, threw 62-1 three months short of turning 40. Her mark would have been a WR as recently as 1968. (In fact, Irina was born a week before East Germany’s Margitta Gummel threw 62-6 3/4 and then 64-4 at the Mexico City Olympics.) Incredible.
Roger writes from Victoria, British Columbia:

As I wrote in the initial post of this series, the procedure is to sort Mirko Jalava’s 2008 World Deep Lists < for each event by age of birth, starting with 1973 and backward from there, to identify all athletes on the list of masters age levels (35 and older on the date of competition). In summarizing the lists, I’ve bold-faced the data for the oldest on the list, and also have noted the youngest athlete on the world list in each event.
Speed? Endurance? Power?
We already know that the masters athletes fare far better in events requiring endurance than in those requiring speed. On the 100 meter world lists, only 10 masters men made the list of 2623 and only 16 women the list of 1388. On the other hand, at 10,000 meters, 21 masters men made the world list of 941, while 27 masters women made
the list of 438. Of the masters men in the distance event, Haile Gebrselasie was outstanding, ranking third in the world at age 35.
How, then would you expect the masters to rate in a power event? I guess the first that comes to mind would be the shot put. Let’s take a look at the data on that:
Masters on Men’s Shot Put World List for 2008
N=527
List threshold=16.60 (54-5 1/2)
19 20.79 (68-2 1/2) Milan Haborák SVK 11 Jan 73 Pacov 12 Jul
77 19.54 (64-1 1/4) Dzmitry Hancharuk BLR 17 Jul 70 Grodno 8 Jul
87 19.38 (63-7) Paolo Dal Soglio ITA 29 Jul 70 Padova 31 Aug
141 18.63 (61-1 1/2) Wim Blondeel BEL 25 Dec 73 Oordegem 26 Jul
171 18.35 (60-2 1/2) Marco Dodoni ITA 5 Sep 72 Cagliari 19 Jul
408 17.05 (55-11 1/4) Li Wenkui CHN 31 Dec 71 Chengdu 30 Mar
428 16.95 Roland Mändla EST 24 Apr 70 Tartu 9 Jun
442 16.89 (55-5) Luís Herédio Costa POR 30 Oct 71 Quinta do Anjo 8 Mar
443 16.89 (55-5) Jim Dunkleberger USA 27 Mar 73 Auburn AL 5 Apr
462 16.84 (55-3) Jaroslav Zitnansky SVK 18 Feb 72 Nitra 5 Jul
506 16.68 (54-8 3 /4) Ernie Conwell USA 17 Aug 72 Nashville TN 18 Apr
508 16.68 (54-8 3/4) Matteo Cibolini ITA 20 Jun 73 Asti 24 May
512 16.67 (54-8 1/4) Zsolt Varga HUN 25 May 72 Pécs 27 Jun
Youngest athlete (17) on this list:
378 17.19 ( 56-4 3/4) Ding Yongheng CHN 18 Jul 91 Luohe 13 Sep
Masters on Women’s Shot Put World List for 2008
N=522
List threshold=14.00 (45-11 1/4)
17 18.92 (62-1) Irina Khudoroshkina RUS 13 Oct 68 Tula 6 Jul
25 18.68 (61-3 1/2) Krystyna Zabawska POL 14 Jan 68 Bydgoszcz 1 Jul
68 16.99 (55-9) NR Leyla Rajabi IRI 18 Apr 83 Almaty 7 Jun
101 16.37 (53-8 1/2) Jo Duncan GBR 27 Dec 66 Birmingham 28 Jun
129 16.06 (52-8 1/4) Mara Rosolen ITA 27 Jul 65 Valsugana 12 Jul
166 15.62 (51-3) Fotiní Kiriakídou GRE 6 Jan 71 Sérres 10 May
208 15.29 (50-2) Margarita Bernardo DOM 26 Feb 72 Santo Domingo 6 Apr
210 15.29 (50-2) Olimpia Menelaou CYP 29 Apr 66 Nicosia 5 Jun
299 14.75 (48-4 3/4) Tatsiana Alisevich BLR 22 Jan 69 Stayki 4 Jun
361 14.55 (47-9) Eha Rünne EST 25 May 63 Tallinn 19 Jul
411 14.34 (47-0 3/4) Katja Will GER 19 Jan 70 Sarreguemines 10
May
427 14.27 (46-10) Jutaporn Krasaeyan THA 13 Feb 72 Bangkok 29 Apr
497 14.07 (46-2) Olena Dementiy UKR 6 Mar 69 Koncha-Zaspa 20 May
Youngest athlete (15) on this list:
481 14.11 (46-3 1/2) Magdaléna Nová CZE 27 Oct 92 Jablonné 4 May