The asterisk tells quite a story. In USATF’s list of world age-group records set at Winston-Salem nationals, the * follows 13 WRs. It notes: “Relays include 5-year age group World and American records for the first time due to new WMA and USATF MTF rules.”
So the Potomac Valley TC’s M45 4×800 mark of 12:02.12 may not stand for long (compare it to the listed M50 WR of 8:32.95). Same for the club’s M55 4×800 WR of 12:57.06 (dwarfed by the listed M60 WR of 9:50.90). Or a couple 4x400s by Philadelphia Masters (M75 in 8:54.00 and W45 in 5:28.31.) The listed M80 and W50 WRs are 6:06.23 and 4:26.18, respectively.
But you have to start somewhere, right? This also could generate new relay excitement. Yes, YOU can hold a masters world record. (Get your paperwork in quick.)
In any case, some incredible individual marks are highlighted by the USATF release after Sunday’s finale:
Another age group world record was set by Neringa Jakstiene (Memphis, Tennessee), the former Lithuanian athlete who recently gained U.S. citizenship, now competes as an American and will join Team USATF at the World Masters Indoor Championships in Poland. Jakstiene set her sixth record of the three day competition (four age group world records and two American records) with a women’s 55-59 age group world record leap in the triple jump of 10.61m/34-9.75.
94-year-old Betty Lindberg (Atlanta, Georgia; Atlanta Track Club) once again stole the show with her second record in her third event of the USATF Masters Indoor Championships. Lindberg crossed the line in the 200m with an American 80-84 age group record time of 1:15.77.
On Saturday, 85-year-old Ino Cantu (San Marcos, Texas; Potomac Valley Track Club), the world record holder in the 80-84 indoor mile, set a new world record by more than 45-seconds in the 85-89 age group mile. Cantu returned Sunday to set a new age group American record in the 800m crossing the line in 3:38.62.
During the first two days of competition, Irene Obera (Fremont, California; Sierra Gold) set two world age group records and an American record, then she returned on day three and set another American record in the women’s 85-89 age group 200m with a time of 53:61.
After narrowly missing out on the American record in the 55-59 age group 400m on Friday, Sue McDonald (Santa Barbara, California; T.H.E. Track Team) clocked a new age group American record in the Women’s 800m with a time of 2:30.49. McDonald is the reigning outdoor 55-59 age group 400m and 800m champion.
World record holder in the 40-44 age group weight throw and 2010 USATF Masters Hall of Fame inductee, Oneithea Lewis (Oakland Gardens, New York; Shore Athletic Club) broke her own 55-59 age group American record in the weight throw with toss of 15.78m/51-9.25.
84-year-old Christel Donley (Colorado Springs, Colorado; Colorado Masters TC) set a new age group world record in the Women’s 80-84 high jump 0.93m/3-0.50.
After her Women’s 70-74 age group American record in the shot put on Friday, Myrle Mensey (St. Louis, Missouri; Throwing and Growing) returned to the field Sunday to set a new age group world record in the weight throw with a toss of 14.84m/48-8.25 and then a few hours later set the American record in the super weight throw with a throw of 10.28m/33-8.75
111 teams from across the country competed over the three day competition at JDL Fast Track. Trophies were presented by National Masters chair Rex Harvey to the top three: Atlanta Track Club, Potomac Valley Track Club, and TNT International.
Saturday’s highlights are here.
94-year-old Betty Lindberg (Atlanta, Georgia; Atlanta Track Club) covered a wide range of distances on Saturday. She clocked 21.15 in the 60m and returned to the track a few hours later to set a new 90-94 age group world record in the mile with a time of 15:15.58. Lindberg is scheduled to compete in the 200m on Sunday.
On Friday Irene Obera (Fremont, California; Sierra Gold) returned after a two year absence and set a new age group world record in the 400m. Saturday Obera set another world record in the W85-89 age group long jump with a leap of 2.04m/6-8.50 and an American record in the 60m crossing the line in 13.76.
Myrle Mensey (St. Louis, Missouri; Throwing and Growing), the world record holder in the Women’s 65-69 age group indoor weight throw, now in the Women’s 70-74 age group, set a new shot put American record with a toss of 8.83m/28-11.75.
90-year-old John Star (Wallingford, Pennsylvania), won the 2018 World Masters Outdoor 10,000m and 5,000m race walks in the 90-94 age group, hit the JDL Fast Track and set a new age group 3,000m Race Walk world record with a time of 24:38.97.
Former Lithuanian athlete Neringa Jakstiene (Memphis, Tennessee), who recently gained U.S. citizenship and now competes as an American will join Team USATF at the World Masters Indoor Championships in Poland. Saturday, she set a new Women’s 55-59 long jump American Record with a jump of 4.95m/16-3. It was her fifth American record of the meet so far, three of which were also Masters world records.
Robert Hewitt (Gresham, Oregon) won the Men’s 85-89 long jump with an American record leap of 3.28m/10-9.25 on his sixth and final attempt. Hewitt set an American record in the high jump Friday night and still holds the world record in the 75-79 age group in the indoor pentathlon (4,239 points) and the 80-84 age group indoor long jump (4.09m/13-5), as well as numerous outdoor age group records.
85-year-old Ino Cantu (San Marcos, Texas; Potomac Valley Track Club), the world record holder in the 80-84 indoor mile, set a new world record of 7:46.94 for the 85-89 age group. The previous world record was 8:33.11.
2015 USATF Masters Hall of Fame inductee and American record holder in the 65-69 age group 3000m, Doug Goodhue (Milford Michigan; Ann Arbor Track Club) clocked an American 75-79 age group record on Friday night and returned Saturday for the mile. Goodhue went on to set another American record with a mile time of 6:18.03.
61-year-old Bruce McBarnette (Sterling, Virginia; Potomac Valley Track Club), a 2009 USATF Masters Hall of Fame inductee and 13-time Masters World Champion, cleared 1.67m/5-5.75 to win his his 41 USATF Masters national title.
Three-time Olympian in the race walk, Michelle Rohl (Mansfield, Pennsylvania) won the Women’s 50-54 Mile with a time of 5:36.15. Rohl competed at the Olympic Games in 1992, 1996 and 2000.
William Clark (Sicklerville, New Jersey) set a new America record in the Men’s 85-89 age group 60m hurdles with a time of 14.15, taking nearly a second off the previous record.
And Rob Jerome deserves no asterisk for his amazing photography from nationals. Give him three gold stars!
Contribute to support independent track and field journalism:
We got one of those records which surprised me until I read this. We ran M55 4×400 in 4:24 which we were very happy with considering two of us were M60 and only one true 400 guy. I was shocked to see us listed under the new records. I thought 5 year age groups were around for a few years. Checking WMA and USATF websites, I see the 4x200s already had 45,55,65, etc records but nothing for 4×400 and 4×800. Just curious, did 4x200s get some sort of head start ? Any way, we’ll enjoy our record status, at least until Poland results start pouring in, Ha!
Ken, I’m going to post on the photo and not on the title of the article. Yes, I do love to see masters women in the hurdles, and we have some outstanding competitors in the US. The photo shows Neringa Jakstiene (55) and Jennifer Hedges (53) running 9.59 and 10.33, respectively, in the pentathlon hurdles, and we have some other terrific hurdlers worth mentioning, including performers like the dynamic Rachel Guest, the quick Anne Sluder, and the authoritative Rita Hanscom, among others.
Two of the reasons that I like to see masters women in the hurdles are that (1) they often did not get to compete in this event in high school or college, and (2) it is hard to find places in which to practice the event. From another perspective, I love to see women combine the power and dexterity required to do well in the event.
I also send congratulations to Rob Jerome/Rob D’Avellar for taking so many great photos.
Thanks, Ken and Pete, for your kind words about my photos. A pleasure, as usual, to photograph so many outstanding performances. Onward and upward to Torun!
Your 4 x 400 record may stand until the end of 2020 when next indoor season officially gets ratified unless somewhere this indoors there will be another 4 x 400 submitted besides the Nationals. Torun relays are only 4 x 200 and no 4 x 400, not sure why. Welcome to the club and enjoy. My club team 4 x 400 age 65 did the same March 15 in NYC and 2 others also went for the record books and will be pending, Men’s 4 x 400 club age 45 and women’s 4 x 400 age 55 only their time was world class, with age-graded 86% average, Athena in 4:42 approx. and not soft at all. They raced a teenage club and was exciting as the masters passed them, all in great spirit except they did not know it was a WR. Seems USATF did not really publicize that WMA adopted the same rule and was not to be found on any website or rule book and the ladies, and I thought we only were going for the American new 5s record. I thought the USATF press release had it wrong somewhere somehow but was confirmed that WMA went along with new 5s. Watch the hustle outdoors in the coming season. May take 2 years for the dust to settle as Jeff Bowers recalculates the existing best relay times in the 10s to see if any of them were also in the 5s. Some teams like my own have run great times in the 10s the last few years but were actually in the 5s and even when the records could have been applied for we were caught off guard like this years results at Millrose or last year at Penn they were all 65 (American Club Record but not submitted). One way to compare new and old soft records is to look at the average age-graded results for the team to see how good they really are despite claiming a new (soft) record.