USA Track & Field 2010 Masters Championships: Day 1
The USA Track & Field 2010 Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships kicked off this morning and already we have a new world record! Oneithea “Neni” Lewis set a new world age-group record in the women’s hammer throw, getting 55.46 meters (181′ 11″) on her final throw to win the competition easily. Amazingly, after fouling the first throw, her next five all bested the existing American Record and her final throw sailed well beyond the eight-year old world record of 51.73 meters (169′ 8″)!
In the 5,000 meters, Rick Blecker of Club Northwest set a new American record with his win in the M55 age group with his time of 16:14.55, and Mary Harada of West Newbury, Massachusetts, set the American W75 age-group record when she finished first in 26:55.11. Her performance bettered the previous American Record of 27:10.76 set by Algene Williams in 1991. Look for more, because Harada, who lowered the W75 mile American Record twice last month, is also entered in the 800m and 1,500m!
While no locals set any records, many did earn bragging rights.
In the Men’s 45 division of the 5,000 meters, the top local was Jeff Adkins (Golden West) who ran 16:19 for 5th, besting Iain Mickle (New Balance Excelsior) by 2 seconds, who came in 7th in 16:21. It must be noted that in this race, the performance of this hot day probably belonged to John Nichols (Buffalo Chips) who raced the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run a month ago and still managed to run 17:39!
Other top locals in the men’s 5,000 included Michael Fadling (Nike Fleet Feet) 16:29 in the M40, Chad Worthen (Nike Fleet Feet) 16:32 in M35, and Al Shook (River City Rebels) 22:00 in M70.
In the women’s 5,000 meters, a couple of locals got to go home with National Champion next to their names. These fast women were Midori Sperandeo (Unattached) who ran 17:48 to win the W40, and Jenny Hitchings (Buffalo Chips), who ran 19:10 to win the W45 division. Locals swept the W40 division with Sperandeo, Jaymee Marty (Impala), and Kirsten Schneider (Buffalo Chips) going 1,2,3.
Jenny Hitchings finishes the 5,000 meters, and shows she's not a track runner by fiddling with her watch. Photo by Abe Underwood.
In the W50 division of the 5,000 meters, I noticed formerly local (now Oregonian) Theresa Kollars showed up and ran 21:46.
There were, of course, many other races today, not to mention field events that being a stringy little distance runner I cannot possible relate to, and you can find complete results here.