Title: Mt. SAC Relays
Tags: track meets Masters
Blog Entry: Few major invitational meets allow Masters. The Penn Relays this coming weekend is one that does allow Masters athletes. The Mt. SAC Relays in Southern California is another. Mt. SAC stands for Mt. San Antonio College, a junior college tucked into the rolling hills east of Los Angeles in Walnut. This past weekend, Mt. SAC saw some wonderful Masters races -- even with some major no-shows (due to injuries and other reasons). I also had a chance to chat with a high jumper I idolized in high school: two-time Olympian Reynaldo Brown. He's making a Masters comeback, he says, at the Pasadena Senior Games this summer. It'll be his first competition since 2000. A kidney ailment sidelined him for years, but now it's resolved, Rey says. He's 58 this year -- and looks fantastic. (I'll post photos (at Masterstrack.com of him and all the Masters events in coming days.) Among the Masters highlights at Sunday's events: Colleen Barney, the 2003 world champion at 100-meter dash in W35, made a triumphant return to competition after a few years off and focusing on her legal career and a daughter who is a champion diver. Colleen might race only once more this season, however. (That's what I'm told by a friend.) But she seemed to have fun out there on a cool but comfortable day in Walnut, Calif. Her W40 race was combined with the W50 race, BTW, after several entrants had to drop out with injuries, including last year's champion, Rita Hanscom. Canadian Tom Dickson, 54, won the M50 100 meters, wearing all red. Tom also won this race in 2005 and 2006. He's a coach at Simon Fraser University who accompanies his athletes at Mt. San Antonio College and jumps into the Masters sprints for fun. This winter, Tom was named the 2007 British Columbia Master Athlete of the Year. Horace Grant, an M55 newbie, edged M55 world champion Nolan Shaheed, 58, in the men's 800-meter run. Nolan bravely pushed the pace for much of the race, but Horace (traveling all the way from his home in Texas), showed great strength in outsprinting Nolan in the last 300. Willie Gault, who turns 48 in September, had the honor of anchoring the HSI elite team in the 4x100-meter invitational race -- which pit him against world champion Tyson Gay! The Hudson Smith International 'A' squad clocked 39.72. I doubt any relay foursome in history has ever gone sub-40 with a 47-year-old on board. Aaron Thigpen, who ran a legal 10.60 a year ago at this meet, defended his 100-meter victory with a legal 10.95 today. But after winning the 200 today in 22.45, the results show him without a place. Whatever. He collected a gold medal for the effort anyway. In fourth place in the 100 was Jeff Williams, who the PA announcer reminded us several times was the 5th-place finisher in the Michael Johnson 19.32 race at the Atlanta Olympics. David Ashford, the M40 world record holder in the 110-meter high hurdles, is 45 now. Last Friday at Mt. SAC, he ran the highs. No, I mean the HIGH highs. Competing in a university/open heat, David came close to the listed, unofficial single-age WR for 42-inch hurdles of 15.2 with his 15.54 in a three-man heat. But David can claim the single-age American record, creaming the old mark of 17.8. Meanwhile, on the Hawaiian isle of Maui, 37-year-old Jeff Laynes ran a 10.36 for 100 meters in the Blue and Gold Invitational Saturday at the Yamamoto Track & Field Facility. That appears to be his fastest time since 2006, when he clocked an amazing 10.17. On to Penn!
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