Willie Gault’s first taste of world masters was sweet: gold in the 100-meter dash. His latest was sour: a cramp while leading the 200-meter final Tuesday. On an otherwise perfect night (crosswind with temps in low 70s), Willie’s right lower hamstring cramped about 20 meters from the finish. With Britain’s Pat Logan on his right and teammate Mike Waller on his left, Willie went down. But he got up and jogged to the finish before being helped off the track by a medic. (His time of 27.46 still beat my all-out effort the night before by 1.5 seconds!) See a sequence of his 200 fall here. Michael Sullivan of Arizona took the gold in 23.36 and is the favorite in his prime event, the 400. On the upside, Britain’s Darren Scott and America’s Bob Lida came back from cramps in their 100 finals to win the M70 and M40 deuce, respectively, in 27.78 and 22.20.

Bob Burns of the Sacramento Sports Commission summarized the night thusly:

July 12, 2011

Bay Area sprinter adds to medal collection at WMA event

No one is ageless. People slow down. The list of age-group records in masters track proves it.

But with her slim physique and flowing stride, Irene Obera at the very lease looks much younger than her years. With her victory in Tuesday’s 200-meter final at the World Masters Athletics Championships, the 77-year-old retired educator from Fremont has now won two dozen world outdoor titles over the course of her lengthy career.

“Shoot,” Obera said when she looked at the Hornet Stadium scoreboard and saw her winning time of 34.82 seconds, leaving her a stride or two behind he listed women’s 75-79 world record of 34.40.

“Oh well, at least I got another American record.”

Compared to last year, Obera has actually gotten faster. She set a U.S. W75 record of 35.26 in winning the 200 at the 2010 USA Masters Championships in Sacramento. A year later, on the same track, she carved a half-second off that time for another U.S. 75-79 best.

“It felt really good out there,” said Obera, who said before these WMA Championships that she would finally retire to concentrate on tennis and bowling. “I still say this is my final meet, but they’re trying to get me to stick around until I’m 80.”

Willie Gault is another sprinter who has defied age remarkably well, as his victory in the M50 100-meter dash showed on Saturday demonstrated. On Monday, Gault was racing toward another title in the 200 meters when he cramped up with about 20 minutes remaining and tumbled to the track. He struggled to his feet and finished the race in 27.46.

Michael Sullivan of the United States was the unexpected winner in 23.36. Gault was assisted off the track by medical personnel but seemed to take the injury in stride afterward.

“I’ve never had that happen before,” Gault said. “I don’t think I pulled it. It just cramped up real bad.”

Running faster than any other 80-year-old man has run, Japan’s Hiroo Tanaka won the M80 200 meters in 30.78, the second-fastest time by an octogenarian. Tanaka, who also won the 100 on Saturday, holds the M80 world record at 30.72.

For the second night in a row, an Olympic triple jumper lost. On Monday, former world record holder Willie Banks placed second in the M55 event. The following night, 1984 Olympic champion Al Joyner placed third in the M50 event with a best jump of 43-3¼. Germany’s Wolfgang Knabe won with a jump of 45-7¼.

In the M65 10-kilometer road race walk in Land Park, Andrew Jamieson of Australia clocked a world-record time of 50 minutes, 11.38 seconds.