What’s Geb gotta do to get WMA marathon world record?
I know, I know. We don’t cover masters marathoning. But WMA’s epic scandal of ignoring legitimate road marks is ongoing. Latest reminder: Haile Gebrsellasie’s world open record of 2:03:59 — at age 35 — is still nowhere to be found on the World Masters Athletics site. Geb turns 37 in mid-April, and today he won the Dubai Marathon in 2:06:46 — still better than WMA’s listed WR of 2:07:12 by Carlos Lopes in 1985. It’s his fourth mark under Lopes’ since turning 35. Geb would have gone faster but for a back problem. How’s this for a masters complaint: “I was watching TV and I slipped into an awkward position which meant I had to sleep in a different way. I normally sleep on my stomach but I had to sleep on my back. When I woke up I found my disc was troublesome and in a bad way and I still cannot bend.” Looks like WMA can’t bend either. Any chance an IAAF world record can be allowed to count in the WMA universe?
Five months after turning 35, Geb finished the first sub-2:04 marathon in Berlin.
2 Responses
I think that WMA has a lot of problems: if you look at World Records listed on their Web Site, there are a lot of little mistakes (like the ones that i’m doing writing in english…), that, for a Organization that may manage datas is a big problem.
Then, there aren’t news (just links to Kamloops…ok, it’s right, but the 7 or 8 world records listed in 2010??? Nothing…) on their site.
I think that we need enthusiasm and will to do in order to speak about masters world.
Not long silences…
There are rumors that Haile’s birth date is not correct, that he is in his 40’s already… Even more amazing the times he’s running.
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