Today brings news of an amazing world masters record for 200 meters. But it’s hard to tell whether Italian Enrico Saraceni’s M40 indoor 21.94 is really superior to South African Philip Rabinowitz’s M100 outdoor 77.59. Enrico’s mark smashes the listed WMA indoor WR of 22.19 set by American Bill Collins nearly 10 years ago. Phil’s mark was set in December 2004.

The WMA Web site carries this profile of Phil by masters official Leo Benning:
In Oct 1996 I read about Philip’s performance in a 25km road walk in Cape Town in a local newspaper. He was 92 at the time and it was an outstanding time for such an elderly man. I managed to track him down and told him all about Western Province and SA Masters and invited him to join. His response was: “Why not?” That was the start of it all. A week later he came to a masters track meeting and entered for the 5000m walk. Unfortunately it rained continuously and he decided to call it a day after a couple of laps. That was his first visit to a track in his life.
Philip works as a bookkeeper in his daughter`s petfood factory and does NOT use a calculater — and he really does a very good job. He believes in moderation in all things. He drinks orange juice and eats at least 3 apples every day and and drinks a tot of gin before bed. (He was born in Lithuania and emigrated to S Africa as a 21-year-old to escape the religious persecution. In the early years he played soccer, tennis and bowls.) His wife died about 9 years ago.
The following year at the WAVA Championships in Durban he took part in the M90 5000m and 20km walks and took gold in both , 45:27.80 and 3:02:51.
Since then he has kept up walking regularly, mainly on the road where he has never been beaten. His daughter, Joyce with whom he lives, felt that Philip should stop walking the 20km and try some other easier event. So at the SAMA Championships in Oudtshoorn in 2000 he won the 5km walk and the shot put. I coached him in the SP for a few weeks and another master Laurie Wale also assisted. Philip duely won both events. However he was particularly keen to continue with the shot put and it was only in 2004 when Hannes Wahl suggested that he should try the sprints that he started doing the 100m in June and then the 200m in November.
Philip now holds the following WP and SA records :
M90 5000m walk 43:08.9
M95 5000m walk 42:58.7 also WR
M95 shot put 3.48m
M95 20km walk 2:48.19 also WR
M100 100m 30.86 also WR
M100 5000m walk 48:02.0 also WR
and hopefully 200m 77..59 WR and WP and SA
Training
Basically he walks 4 to 5 km Mon to Fri and perhaps twice that distance on Saturdays. When he trains for the 100m he walks a 100m slowly keeping his pulse to 70 -75 bpm. Then he walks a 100m faster with his pulse 80 – 90. Then follows a 100m that he runs with his pulse not higher than 110. The rest between 100m is 5 to 10mins. Coach Hannes Wahl, his wife and Philip`s daughter help with the timing , starting and taking his pulse. When he trains for the 200m he walks 2 x 100m and runs only 1 x 200m. This training is done for 2 weeks before the race.
His training is monitored and if the first 50m is too fast he is stopped. He is never allowed to get out of breath. At present he is being monitored by the Physiolgy Dept at Stellenbosch University.