A few days before Malaga worlds, I went bonkers over Japanese entrant Sadao Tabira. I learned he was entered in 17 (seventeen, diecisiete, hiragana) events, including the decathlon. And he’s 85! So how did he do? Uhm. The question is how did he not do. He took silver in the 5000 (34:53.87), 10K road run (1:35:21) and 6K cross country (46:00). The rest? DNS. Did not start. Sigh.
As noted originally, Sadao is a survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bomb “Fat Man.” So I can’t stay mad. He’s paid his life dues.
But he probably paid hundreds of dollars more than he should. Were his entries voluntary? Would love to know.
For the nonrecord, Sadao skipped the 800, 1500, 80 hurdles, 200 hurdles, 2K steeple, half-marathon, 10K walk, 20K walk, high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump, hammer and dec.
For complete results — all in one file at last — check out mastershistory.org.
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I did not go to Malaga which means that I did not enter [or start]about 22 events. Probably not worth an article but by not entering, I did save a lot of money.
Absolutely voluntary. Not too hard to figure out his criteria. Congratulations to him. Nice results file, by the way.
As a meet director, I’m grateful to athletes like Sadao. They help pay the bills!