Andy Hecker

Gunnar Linde could be the subject of another FAT photo Sunday when he runs the 2,000-meter steeplechase at age 90.

Rants June 6, 2019

Gunnar Linde eyes M90 steeple WR, but could use help making Los Angeles race ‘legal’

Hurdlers over 90 are rare. Steeplechasers over 90 are rarer still. In fact, according to mastersrankings.com, only two M90 men — Americans Dixon Hemphill and George Roudebush — have run the 2000-meter steeple since Charles Ross set the listed world record of 18:54.10 in 2013. (But Charles also has a nonratified 18:27.44 from 2013.) At the time, I reported that Charles was the world’s first M90 steepler. So it should be something to celebrate that M90 Gunnar Linde is entered in the 2K steeple this Sunday at West Los Angeles College. He’ll run in the USATF-sanctioned Southern California Association USATF…

Here's moi videotaping Carl Lewis at the Mt. SAC Relays, where he said nyet to entering masters meets.

Rants April 22, 2019

Masters exhibitions vanish at Mt. SAC Relays, but resurrection possible if Willie Gault commits

Last weekend’s Mt. SAC Relays were the first in more than 20 years not to feature masters. In the late 1990s, when I first started covering geezer exhibitions at Walnut, we had an age-graded 100, flat 200 and age-graded 800s — with National Masters News publisher Al Sheahen calculating distances and starting times (for the 800s). Masters also ran 110 hurdles some years and threw the hammer. But in recent years, especially in the men’s and women’s 800s, few runners showed up. Some races had only two or three entrants. Scratches weren’t a problem for the sprints. But the writing…

Gunnar is shown in FAT phototimer image being submitted as part of his WR application to USATF.

Records February 25, 2019

Gunnar Linde zips 9:42.99 at 90 for outdoor mile world record, crushing AR by 70 seconds

Besides the fireworks at USATF Indoor Nationals (including 60-meter masters exhibitions and the son of masters runner Joan Hunter winning a national 2-mile title from the “slow” heat), the weekend brought news about a massive outdoor mile WR by a SoCal runner. Five years ago, I wrote: “M85 distance star Gunnar Linde, a Latvian-born former ski champion in Europe, now lives in Venice, California. He moved to the States in the early 1950s, so he’s a complete Yank. Sunday at the Southern California Indoor Meet … Outdoors (intended to give athletes a chance at distances contested at Boston indoor nationals),…