Running News Daily

Jackson wins gold at World Masters Athletics championships

Charles Jackson’s first time overseas was a golden trip. 

He flew to Gothenburg, Sweden last week and will return Tuesday as a world champion. He won the gold in the 100-meter dash at the World Masters Athletics Stadia Championship, running in the 35-39 age group. 

“I feel honored and humbled,” Jackson said. “Honored because of the experience around other people from all over the world with the same passion and goal. Humbling to know the work that it gook to get here. I was not seeded as the top runner, so taking gold was amazing.

“(I enjoyed) seeing the 8,000 athletes from all over the world with the same passion that I had and seeing all the athletes from different countries coming together in peace and unity.”

 His world title was a photo finish. He had a strong start in the finals Thursday but the rest of the field started to catch up in the final meters. When he crossed the finish line in 10.91 seconds, he still wasn’t sure if he had won.

 He thought France’s Florent Ribet had beat him to the coveted medal, but Jackson won by a hundredth of a second.  “The start is my specialty,” Jackson said. “I have been to six regular national championships in the 60-meter dash, so I’m very explosive out of the blocks.

“My plan was to react to the gun and drive out as I usually do. My form began to break down at the end and that’s when the other guy began to come. But I held on for dear life. The times are not special at all, but the eight-hour time difference, the injury setback and the rounds take a toll. That’s why I was just so ecstatic that I persevered through adversity. The other guys were telling me that I won it, but I didn’t believe it until I saw it.”

Back in January, the Molo Middle School physical education teacher tore the meniscus and suffered a bone bruise in his right knee. 

“It was believed that I would not be able to recover from it fully and especially for Worlds,” Jackson said. “January, February and March I was limping and in pain.

“With much prayer and dry needling, I recovered enough to train at the end of April, so in June I ran two track meets and just prepared for Worlds.”  He conserved energy in the first preliminary round to win his heat at 11.33 seconds and fifth overall. In the semifinals, he dropped to 10.96 and was second in his heat behind the top qualifier for the finals, Kenya’s Ibrahim Muyah Makonjo (10.72).

Mankonjo was third in the finals at 10.97.  “When running rounds, I adjust according to the field of runners in my heat. So if I’m running and the other guys are behind me, I don’t have to run so hard because I have another round to run. “

 He had hopped to medal in the 200 as well but finished fifth in that even at 22.55 on Monday. He also was part of the sixth-place 4×100 relay team (43.90) on Saturday.  Jackson, a five-time champion in the 100 (3) and 200 (2) at the USA Track and Field Masters Outdoor Championships, doesn’t plan to attend the next WMA outdoor championship in South Korea in 2026 but will go to the WMA indoor championship in Gainesville, Florida, in March of 2025 to compete in the event he considers his specialty, the 60-meter dash.