Greetings, all Willie Gault is just warming up. So is Aaron Thigpen.
Both M40 sprinters crashed the 10.70 barrier for the 100 Saturday at the Southern California USATF Association Masters Championships at West Los Angeles College in Culver City.
For reasons I don't yet know, they ran in separate heats. First Thigpen ran 10.68 -- under the pending American M40 record of 10.73 that Willie ran at Occidental College on May 10. Then Willie won HIS heat in 10.60! I didn't stay long enough to check the wind readings, but I'm pretty sure they were legal. Willie said he didn't get a good start (despitge using MY Newton blocks).
About an hour earlier, Aaron led off a Speedwest TC 4x1 relay team, handing off to Kettrell Berry, who powered through a backstretch headwind, who handed the baton to M45 200 WR man Kevin Morning who connected with Willie Gault, who finished strong despite a two-hour wait. (The relay was supposed to have started at 2:30 p.m. It wasn't contested until 4:06 p.m. for a variety of reasons that I hope meet director Andy Hecker wille explain).
The final clocking? A hand-timed 41.4 -- well under the American record of 42.20 set by SpeedWest's Frank Strong, Cornell Stephenson, Kettrell Berry and Willie Gault in May 2004. The timing system didn't work for the relay.
The same team will try again for the AR -- and maybe the world M40 record in the low 41s (which Kettrell sez the Dutch have, although the WMA Web site lists the 42.20 as the world M40 record) at a meet in mid-July in Los Gatos, near San Jose, California.
I'm also waiting on results of the triple jump, held late in the meet after I began a two-hour drive home. The likely winner in the M45 age group was one Willie Banks, who recently lost his M45 world record in the TJ to a German who went 49-7 3/4. Willie told me before the event that his speed is much better (even at age 49!) than it was was when he went 47-9 in 2001 (off two weeks of training). He expected to jump off a 12-step approach today, testing a weak knee.
Also, I learned Saturday that the men's masters exhibition race at the Carson USATF nationals in two weeks will be over 39-inch (masters) high hurdles. So expect a breakthrough there. Willie Gault plans to run. Roger Kingdom is possible. But forget about Renaldo Nehemiah and Greg Foster -- names dangled by event organizer Mark Cleary.
Ken Stone http://www.masterstrack.com
