Team USATF Masters Torun Adds 18 Medals on Day Five at the
WMA Indoor Championships; Including Two World Records and One American Record
Team USATF Masters added 18 medals to its growing total at the World Masters Athletics World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland on Thursday, March 28, running the total US medal count to 94. Highlights of the day were the World Records set in the 800m by Sabra Harvey (W70, Houston, TX) 2:50.57, breaking the old mark of 2:58.03 by the UK’s Angela Copson set in 2018 – Copson finished second in this race, and Neringa Jakstiene (W55, Memphis, TN) in the triple jump with a leap of 11.09m, breaking her own mark of 10.61m set at the indoor nationals in Winston-Salem, NC at the beginning of March. This was Jakstiene’s second WR of the Championships, the first coming in the long jump. In one of the final events of the day, Sue McDonald (W55, Santa Barbara, CA) bested her own AR in the 800m with a time of 2:27.58, breaking her old mark of 2:30.49 set at the indoor nationals this year; she finished in bronze medal position in Toruń, five seconds behind a WR performance by the UK’s Virginia Mitchell and former WR holder Clare Elms, also of the UK.
Another highlight were the wire to wire performances by Lynn Cooke (W60, Odessa, FL) and Lesley Hinz (W60, Atlanta, GA) in the 800m final as they took gold (2:42.83) and silver (2:43.14), and by Sonja Friend-Uhl (W45, Boca Raton, FL) as she took gold as well in 2:17.40. Other US medals in the 800m were captured by Jeff Lindsay (M60, Tulsa, OK) in a time of 2:18.43 for silver; Mark Williams (M45, Columbia, NJ) whose time of 2:01.33 was good for bronze; and Carolyn Langenwalter (W80, Calvin, OK), whose 5:48.58 earned her a bronze medal.
In addition to Neringa Jakstiene’s WR performance in the triple jump, Team USATF Masters athletes captured four other medals in that event. Gloria Krug (W85, New Oxford, PA) captured gold (2.95m) and Irene Obera (W85, Fremont, CA) captured silver (2.80m) for a 1-2 US sweep in their age group; Flo Meiler (W80, Shelburne, VT) won silver (5.06m); and Barbara Warren (W70, Charleston, WV) took the bronze (5.61m).
There was another 1-2 US sweep in the M65 shot put, with world record holder Doug Torbert (M65, Redlands, CA) taking the gold with a put of 15.07m and Joe Myers (M65, White Pine, TN) taking the silver at 13.44m; this was a repeat of their 1-2 finish at the World Outdoor Championships in Malaga, Spain last September. Earlier in the day Ed Kent (M80, Meridian, ID) took bronze with a mark of (7.84m).
A 2-3 finish in the M55 pole vault rounded out the day’s medals for Team USATF Masters. Victor Berezovskiy (M55, Ventura, CA) captured the silver with a vault of 3.65m, topping Hall of Famer Paul Babits (M55, Fort Wayne, IN) with fewer misses at the same height, putting Babits in bronze medal position.
After five days, Team USATF stands in fourth place in the official overall medal table with 94 medals, trailing Great Britain and Northern Ireland by just five medals. Leading the pack is Germany with 164 medals, followed by host Poland with 113. Spain and Finland round out the top six with 72 and 51 medals respectively.
Friday’s highlighted events will be the finals in the10k racewalk, men’s and women’s hammer throw, women’s discus, men’s pole vault, men’s triple jump, women’s pentathlon, 60 meter hurdles and 200 meters and the heats in the 1500m.
Compiled by:
Sandy Triolo, MTF Communications Subcommittee Chair (mtfcommchair@gmail.com)
Jerry Bookin-Weiner, MTF Vice Chair (mtfvicechair@gmail.com)
Amanda Scotti, MTF Secretary and Publisher of National Masters News (ascotti.nmn@gmail.com) .
