Walter Dix, Julia Hawkins highlight LSU masters nationals in 100

Water, shown at 2011 IAAF worlds, makes the rare jump from Open to masters nationals.

LSU will be Speed City in mid-July when two big names compete at masters nationals. As noted in Bob Weiner’s latest meet preview, Olympian Walter Dix and Senior Olympian Julia Hawkins are entered. Walter has Olympic bronze in the 100 and 200 [thanks to two DQs]. Julia has something even more special — claims to a world record. At 101, Julia became the fastest centenarian on record when she clocked 39.62 at last month’s National Senior Games in Birmingham. (That’s better than Ida Keeling’s 1:17.33 at 2016 Penn relays and Ella Mae Colbert’s solo 46.79 the following month.) Neither made it into the record books, though. Now Julia gets to sleep in her own bed for masters nationals — she lives a few miles away in Baton Rouge, notes this nice Washington Post profile. But she still needs to produce age verification, since records czar Jeff Brower notes he’s still waiting on a birth certificate for her recent mark. No vetting is needed for submaster Walter, whose season bests are 10.21 and 20.44 with a seventh-place finish in the 2 at Sacramento open nationals. He’s 31, and his presence is appreciated. (His PRs are merely 9.88 and 19.53.)

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July 3, 2017

5 Responses

  1. Peter L. Taylor - July 4, 2017

    Thanks for posting this, Ken. In terms of Olympians, we have two more who have entered, the legendary Rich Kenah, 46, the former Georgetown standout who competed in the 2000 Olympics, is entered in the 800, and the wonderful Amy Begley, 39, the former University of Arkansas phenom who ran in Beijing (2008 Olympics), is entered in a variety of events in Baton Rouge.

    In terms of records noted in the PR blast, the 12.33 100 run by Bill Collins (M65) at Penn Relays in April is still in the “reviewing” classification, even though some marks achieved as recently as June have already been classified as “approved.”

    The 4 x 400 world M45 record run at Penn by Allen Woodard and colleagues never even made the list of records under consideration, as was the case for the 4 x 100 club record set at Penn by Allen and teammates. Too bad.

  2. tb - July 4, 2017

    Can we get to the rending of garments already? I’ll start: athletes have entered an average of 2.7545 events this year…

  3. Ken Stone - July 4, 2017

    Status of entries shows Kenah needs to submit DOB data:
    http://www.usatf.org/Events—Calendar/2017/USATF-Masters-Outdoor-Championships/Status.aspx

  4. Ken Stone - July 14, 2017

    Walter Dix likes us:
    http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/article_c9b2ba8c-68d6-11e7-8ba1-1b1a89b2144d.html

  5. John Stilbert - July 17, 2017

    These self-launching videos are very annoying.

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