Gunnar Linde

Photo galleries galore (mine and others) from Ames nationals, Toronto WMA regionals

WMA regionals wrapped up Sunday in Toronto, with world record efforts by W70 hammer specialist Myrle Mensey (in that event and the throws pent) and about-to-be-sworn-in-as-American Neringa Jakstiene (upping her own pentathlon WR from Ames). But Southern California’s Gunnar Linde was wrongly credited with an M90 WR in the 2K steeple. He ran 15:47.32 in the Ontario heat and humidity but scorched a 14:40.5 in mid-June in Los Angeles. The meet invited athletes from 31 North American, Central American and Caribbean nations — but the U.S. and Canada dominated, with many meet records falling on the Mondo tracks where 2020…


M90 Gunnar Linde laps 2K steeple world record; W40, W65 and M85 decathlon ARs set in Wisconsin

How fast was 90-year-old Gunnar Linde when he ran the five-lap steeplechase over the weekend in Los Angeles? If he’d been racing listed M90 record-holder Charles Ross, Gunnar would have lapped him. That’s how I grok Gunnar’s 14:40.54 2K steeple WR Sunday at West Los Angeles College. Charles holds the listed WR of 18:54.10. Special thanks to three M60 gents — Brian Nelson, Dennis Wilson and meet director Andy Hecker — who finished the race to make sure no technical rules glitches kept Gunnar from going in the WMA record books. (BTW, he ran 30-inch barriers despite the fact standard…


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…


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),…