Running News Daily

The World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, are only three days old, but the competition has already produced a remarkable display of speed, endurance and longevity, with four world records shattered and another 10 championship records rewritten.

The record-breaking action began on the opening day when the United States’ Richard Lee produced a stunning performance in the M65 2,000m steeplechase. Lee stopped the clock at 7:09.29, winning gold while lowering the existing world record in the age group.

Day two proved even more dramatic, delivering three world records in quick succession.

Great Britain’s John Wright was first to strike, clocking 12.03 seconds to win the M65 100m. In doing so, the veteran sprinter improved his own world record of 12.15, set in 2024, underlining his remarkable consistency at the highest level of masters competition.

Only minutes later, the United States’ Kenton Brown produced another record-breaking run in the M80 100m. Brown crossed the line in 14.16, taking 0.05 seconds off his own previous world record of 14.21, which he established last year.

Thailand then added another name to the growing list of Daegu record-breakers. Somsanga Boonnok won the W70 80m hurdles in 15.61, breaking a world record that had belonged to Austria’s Marianne Maier since 2016.

Four world records in just three days tell only part of the story. Across the championships, 10 championship records have already fallen, highlighting the extraordinary standard being produced by athletes competing across the masters age groups.

Canada has also made its presence felt on the medal podium. Johana Flipsen captured W70 10K race walk gold in 1:04:18, while Vern Christensen won the M85 2,000m steeplechase in 14:48.25.

Canadian athletes have continued to add to the medal tally, with Lynne Wawryk Epp taking bronze in the W70 800m in 3:21.04, while Vanessa Johnson secured silver in the W40 race walk after finishing in 1:05:52.

But one of the most intriguing storylines to watch as the championships continue belongs to Canada’s Wendy Alexis.

At 71 years old, Alexis has arrived in Daegu with a world record firmly within reach. She is just 0.04 seconds away from the W70 100m world record of 14.37 seconds, and after targeting the championship throughout the season, she now has the opportunity to turn that ambition into history.

Alexis will contest her semifinal on Tuesday morning, with the final scheduled for later that evening.

With four world records already gone, 10 championship records broken and some of the world’s finest masters athletes still waiting to take to the track, Daegu is proving that age is no barrier to extraordinary performance.

And if the opening three days are anything to go by, the record books may have plenty more rewriting to come.

In a remarkable display of speed and determination, Wendy Alexis, a 70-year-old sprinter from Ottawa, Canada, set a new world record in the women’s 70-74 age category for the 200-meter dash at the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships in Gainesville, Florida. Alexis clocked an impressive 30.68 seconds in her heat, surpassing the previous record of 31.17 seconds by nearly half a second.

This achievement adds to Alexis’s distinguished career in masters athletics. Earlier in the competition, she secured the W65 60m title with a time of 8.95 seconds. At the 2024 World Masters Athletics Championships in Sweden, she became the 100-meter world champion with a time of 14.46 seconds and earned silver in the 200-meter final with a wind-aided 30.81 seconds.

Masters athletics features age-group competitions in five-year increments, allowing athletes to compete against peers of similar age. The World Masters Athletics organization maintains records for these age groups, highlighting the ongoing competitiveness and dedication of senior athletes.

Wendy Alexis’s record-breaking run serves as an inspiring example of athletic excellence and perseverance, demonstrating that age is not a barrier to achieving world-class performance.

Distance Event Highlights at the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships:

• Michael Kiely (Ireland): The 80-year-old from Cork clinched gold in the Men’s 800m (80-84 age category) with a time of 3:09.35. Remarkably, Kiely trains on a makeshift track mowed by his wife, showcasing his dedication to the sport.

• Francis Kipkoech Bowen (Kenya): In the Men’s 50-54 category, Bowen set a new world record in the 3000m, finishing in 8:36.23 and winning gold by over half a minute.

• Inocencio Cantu (USA): The 91-year-old American rewrote history with a time of 21:29.65 in the Men’s 90-94 category 3000m, setting a new world record.

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.

Toronto’s Karla Del Grande has cemented her status as one of the world’s fastest masters runners, holding more than a dozen world age group records. On Wednesday afternoon at the 2024 World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, Del Grande added another record to her illustrious resume by setting a new world record in the W70+ 100m, clocking an impressive 14.70 seconds.

Del Grande’s time won her the gold in the women’s 70+ event, narrowly edging out her Chilean rival, Sara Montecinos, by just one hundredth of a second. Montecinos took the silver with a time of 14.71 seconds, while Finland’s Sinikka Illaru went home with the bronze, finishing in 15.97 seconds.

To put Del Grande’s world record into perspective, she averaged a speed of 25 km/h over 100m at the age of 71. This marks the second time this season that she has broken the 100m world record for the W70+ age group, having run a similar time at last month’s Puma Twilight meet in Hamilton.

Her gold was one of two medals for Canada on Day 2 of the World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. Calgary’s Maria Zambrano also brought home a medal, winning silver in the W50+ 5,000 meters with a blazing time of 18 minutes and 19 seconds.

Del Grande’s success at the masters level has been nothing short of remarkable. She began competing in 2002 at the age of 49 and has since set numerous Canadian records in various sprint events across both indoor and outdoor competitions. She has been named Ontario Masters Athletics’ Female Masters Athlete of the Year an astounding 12 times and was honored as the World Masters Athlete of the Decade for 2010-2020.

At 71, Del Grande stands as a beacon of inspiration in Canadian masters running, and is known for her indomitable spirit and record-setting performances. In a recent interview, she voiced her goal of sharing her passion for the sport and encouraging other older women to take up running/track and field.

For multiple world record holder Karla Del Grande, age is just a state of mind.

Under Armour has teamed up with Canadian Running to produce the Under Armour Diversity Series—an exclusive feature content series designed to highlight and promote individuals and organizations who have demonstrated a commitment to grow the sport of running, support those who are underrepresented and help others. The series features stories and podcasts highlighting these extraordinary Canadians who are making a difference in their communities and on the national running scene.

Karla Del Grande has a few big goals: First, she wants to set another world record, and take home another medal at World Masters Athletics Championships this year. She wants to support her track team at Variety Village in Toronto. And she really, really wants masters athletes to know that the track is open to everyone.

After all, she didn’t find her way there until she was nearly 50 years old. Now, at 71, she’s become a poster-woman of the sport in Canada, thanks to her indomitable record-setting, her sheer dedication to the sport and her love of bringing new people in.

We met up on a snowy day in March at Variety Village, where she trains and runs with the Variety Village Athletics Club. I arrived late, just in time to catch the last 15 minutes of her workout class. Rather than let me stand on the sidelines, she jogged over, grabbed me by the hand, and pulled me into the group class, where athletes of all ages, shapes, sizes and abilities started doing rubber band work with a partner. 

(“Everybody has the right to be part of a gym and have that social connection, no matter who you are, whether you’re a wheelchair user, or you have a mobility issue or anything else,” says Jill Ross Moreash, the class instructor, a former teacher and one of the fittest women I’ve ever seen, told me after class.)

Del Grande handed me a band after I shucked my winter coat and shoes. “You can be my partner,” she said. The workout was not easy.

This isn’t the first time Del Grande has helped bring someone into one of the workout classes. She recalls another snowy day, when she was heading into Variety Village for track practice, and she noticed an older woman standing next to her car, looking bereft. Del Grande started up a conversation, quickly learning the woman had recently been widowed and was hoping to find some conversation and community, but was overwhelmed about going into the gym. Del Grande shepherded her in, gave her a tour, helped her get signed up and brought her to class. She’s so well known as a woman who brings people into the community that she’s honoured on the wall at Variety Village.

That’s how she is on the track, as well: open and generous with her time (while still training to set world records, of course).

As a young girl, Del Grande was sporty, but she and her gym bestie (a race walker named Nicky Slovitt) both recall how, in gym class when they were in school, girls weren’t encouraged to run. That whole bit about our ovaries falling out if we sprinted or high jumped? Not a joke, if you were a gym teacher in the 60s, apparently. They believed it.

The track club at Variety Village isn’t just masters athletes; head coach Jamal Miller has created a vast community of runners ranging from pre-teens to the 70+ age group, with elite runners training alongside new track athletes. “We’re the best kept secret in Scarborough,” says assistant coach Katie Watkins. “We’re in a little bubble of what the world should be. Our track club is quite a diverse team. We cater to people of all abilities, from those living with disabilities to grassroots runners, starting off at age four, all the way up to world champions. The unique part about Jamal and how he trains is that if you’re interested, and you want to try it, he wants to work with you.”

Del Grande is at Variety Village early most days of the week. On Monday, she swims or aqua-jogs, then does weights. (“It’s a longevity thing,” she says. “You need to have balance between focusing on performance but also thinking toward longevity.”) Tuesday, she trains on the indoor track that runs around Variety VIllage’s main gym space. Wednesday is another weight session, this time in a class, and she runs again Thursday. Friday through Sunday depend on what her competition schedule looks like–when we met up on Wednesday, she was racing on Sunday, so the rest of the week was relatively easy, to prepare for that.

Del Grande found the track by accident–a work friend introduced her to running workouts on the track, and it grew from there. At the time, she did casual 5K and 10K runs and races, but she wouldn’t call herself a runner. Her friend brought her along to a track workout held by a local shop. “I really liked the short stuff,” she recalls. “We’d be doing track workouts and everybody else would be complaining that you had to go fast, and going around the track over and over was boring. But I loved it. And  finally somebody said, ‘Well, why aren’t you racing it?'”

It was a lightbulb moment. “I thought adults just did road races,” she says. “It’s very hard to get out the information about the sprinting. But it exists–and there are adults doing high jump and shot put and all the other track and field sports, as well.”

She signed up, one thing led to another, and now, she’s one of the fastest female masters athletes in Canada.

“We always say that you’re never too old, you’re only too young to join Canadian Masters Athletics,” she laughs.

 

How fast can you run at the age of 80 years?

China's Li Yiben's answer was a performance of 28:06 to finish 5,000 meters, breaking the Asian record for 5,000-meter race in the 80-year-old group.

Li did it in a track and field event in Huainan of east China's Anhui Province on April 3. He was competing in a 5,000m race in a mixed group of six. The other five were three men in their 50s and 60s, plus two women in their mid-30s.

In the end, Li beat three competitors under mild rain and finished the race in the third place, surpassing the previous Asian record (31:05) by 2:59.

"This is tough. I have never worked so hard in my left," said Li after the race.

Li used to serve in the military when he was young. Back then he was a mountaineer. After being transferred to civil work in 1968, Li had to go over 20 kilometers from home to work. That's when he fell in love with running. Li would choose run to work every two or three days. Such hard workouts made him an incredible amateur track and field athlete.

After he retired in 1995, Li was able to invest more time in running and he did with every hour he had. In 1998, Li attended a 100-kilometer super marathon event and won the gold medal in senior group by finishing at 11:45:33, which was two hours faster than the national record.

Li participated in the national masters athletics games in 1999 and won four golds, breaking the Asian record in every competition he attended. One year later, he was invited to attend the Asia Masters Athletics Championships in India. Li was 0.8 seconds away from winning gold in the men's 400-meter race but claimed the title in the 800m competition.

In June 2001, Li went to Sydney to participate in the World Masters Athletics Championships. Though many of his opponents were retired professional athletes, Li still won the bronze medal in the 800m and finished sixth in the 5,000m race.

Li continued to appear at multiple editions of the above events in the following years and pocketed more medals and new records. Running has become a part of his life as he runs at least 5,000 meters everyday for the last 60 years. Running makes him feel younger, said Li.

From their balconies each day, Italians are collectively demonstrating solidarity during the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown: at noon with a heart-felt applause for health care workers, and again at 6 p.m. with a sing-along that features a different song each day.

This has become a sort of balcony block party in my apartment complex, where everyone lets loose in a liberating moment of responsible social togetherness, blasting music from speakers, banging on pots and pans, blowing a horn, greeting neighbors across the way, whatever it takes to make the day feel a little bit more normal.

Italian runners on the other hand, are anything but united, divided on the appropriate behavior to take during the lockdown and whether running is a valid reason to go outside, like shopping for food, or walking the dog, or simply a selfish act that puts others as well as themselves at risk for contracting the virus. Under the current decree, anyone who leaves their house for whatever reason is supposed to carry a “self-declaration” form prepared by the government, that states why you are leaving your house. Police are on the streets stopping people, asking why they’re out and liars face fines and jail time.

While running or going out for a walk or bike ride is not prohibited under the current law if it is done alone and not in a group, many, including other runners, are saying that those who want to go out for their daily run or workout should put their own pleasures aside and stay inside, a small sacrifice to make for the well-being of the country. The runners still getting in their miles have argued that there is no more risk of them running alone than the there is of the person who goes out to buy cigarettes or to the person who goes to the supermarket more than once in a day to buy food or a favorite snack.

Running in the time of COVID-19 is seen by many as frivolous even though the medical experts say that physical activity increases endorphins which help to reduce the stress that many are feeling now.

Before the nationwide lockdown went into effect on March 10, 2020, signs were already there that the running life we know and love it in Italy was about to change. At the end of February, the National Indoor Masters Championships scheduled to be held in Ancona, was abruptly canceled days before the start, followed by many road races including the famous Huwai Roma-Ostia Half Marathon scheduled for March 8, the race that Galen Rupp won in 59:47 in 2018. While tracks in Rome were still open, there was uncertainty as most races on the calendar were being annulled, until the lockdown went into effect and definitively suspended all sporting events - professional and amateur - and shut down gyms, pools and other places of congregation, including the parks of Rome, until further notice.

Runners who had been training all winter for indoor championships as well as for spring races, both on the track and off, suddenly found themselves without their goal race or other arena to test their fitness.

Marathon runners in the eternal city were only three weeks away from the start of the Run Rome Marathon, when it too got postponed to a later, as yet undecided date. The problem for these runners is finding another marathon as most European spring marathons have all been canceled or postponed as well.

Paola Tiselli (third photo), 46, an international level master’s runner, specializing in the 800 and 1500 meters and current Italian age-group record holder in the 1000 meters indoor (3:01:14), said that she had been training all winter for the Italian and European indoor championships, which have now both been canceled.

“I’ve returned to the preparation I was doing about two months ago to stretch out the (training) time”, said Tiselli on how she has had to reorganize her training in view of the fact that there are currently no races on the immediate calendar.

She’s added more strength training sessions to her usual routine of twice per week and has added longer hill repeats – up to 300 meters – as well as an occasional long run of 12/13 kms, interspersed with faster intervals, something that she had eliminated as she was focusing on the 800 meters for this indoor championships.

“In this period of emergency and with all of the races canceled, I’ve re-formulated my preparation with a goal of (maybe) the Italian Masters Relay Championships in July in Catania and the World Masters Athletics championships” at the end of July in Toronto, Canada. “So, let’s say that I’m practically back to a winter preparation”.

Anna Micheletti (second photo), 67, another age-group record-holder with numerous Italian and European titles from 100 meters to 400 meters, echoes Tiselli’s current training focus, adding that it’s not easy in the lockdown but it can be done.

“At home we’re (she and husband, sprinter Claudio Rapaccioni) trying to maintain the workouts. For us sprinters that means to maintain the strength in our legs, with exercises” adding that as a former middle-distance runner “if you don’t also maintain your resistance you won’t be able to run, in my case, a 400. It becomes impossible”.

Micheletti, President of Romatletica Footworks, the current Italians women’s masters team champions, is doing many of her workouts at home and on the grounds of her condominium and avoids contact with others as best as she can.

“We all have to try and do everything that we can to maintain the shape we’re in and we should keep up our activity, with respect for others,” she said referring to current running norms adding that “unfortunately this is something that we’re missing in our society”.

Rita del Pinto, the sprint and middle-distance coach of my team, Liberatletica, of which Tiselli is also a member, recommended her runners to follow a circuit training program that they can do either outside or in, depending on their circumstances.

“The sprinters repeat the program twice, while the middle-distance runners should repeat it three or four times” said del Pinto, who oversees the training of many of the top masters’ sprinters in the country.

For the moment, though, each runner must decide what the best way to stay in shape is for the races they hope to run when life in Italy returns to normal.

In the meantime, we’ll all put our different opinions to one side and enjoy the music from our balconies!

At 102, Man Kaur is still running — and winning gold medals. The phenomenon from India just nailed the gold medal in the 200-meter race for the 100-to-104 age group at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Malaga, Spain.

She finished in 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Kaur has a message for younger folks: Keep away from junk food and stick to an exercise regimen!

Her own routine is impressive for any age. She wakes up at 4 a.m., bathes, washes clothes, makes tea, recites prayers until about 7 a.m. Sometimes she goes to the Gurdwara, the place of worship for Sikhs, other times she prays at home. And then she goes to the track for an hour of sprinting practice.

The diminutive Kaur hasn't been a lifetime runner. Far from it. She started running in 2009, when her son, Gurdev Singh, who's now 80, urged her to take up track and field.

Singh, the second of her three children, is her coach as well as cheerleader. He also a long-time track competitor: "I was on my college track team and in school, I ran track and I played on the [soccer] team. I have been running in the master level for the last 25 years."

Singh has amassed more than 80 racing medals since 1992. What made him take his then 93-year-old mother to the track? It was mainly a whim, he explains — but also a desire to keep her fit.

"She was very well, with no health problems, and she moved fast. So I took her to the university track with me and asked her to run 400 meters. She did it, slowly, and I thought 'Yes, She can do it.'

"Kaur enjoyed it enough to want to return. She liked running, she said. And quickly she started to improve. Two years later, given how well she was doing, her son registered her for international events he was participating in. Kaur agreed with no hesitation. And she hasn't stopped running.

Charles Allie (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) won five gold medals at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Malaga, Spain, and smashed his own world record in the 70-74 age group 400m to earn USATF Athlete of the Week. In the preliminary heats of the 400m, Allie blasted to a 57.26 to knock more than a second off the world record he set earlier in the year, and he went on to win the final in 58.67. The 71-year-old Allie also won the 100m (13.22) and 200m (26.06) and picked up two more golds on Team USATF relays in the M65 division.

Karla del Grande breaks world records in both 100m and 200m at World Masters Athletics Championships in Malaga, Spain.  The Toronto runner has been racking up accolades since she began competing on the track in 2002 at age 49, Del Grande trains with Variety Village in Toronto. Del Grande ran 28.83 in the 200m and 14.04 in the 100m in Malaga. The previous records for both were held by Nadine O’Connor of the U.S. Del Grande also lowered the Canadian records in both distances earlier this summer in Surrey, B.C. Del Grande has a long history of success on the track at the masters level and has held numerous Canadian records in the sprints in various age categories. She has been named the Ontario Masters Athletics’ Female Masters Athlete of the Year six times.

Ted Rowan of Martensville, Saskatchewan smashed the M85 decathlon world record at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Malaga, Spain. Rowan beat the previous record by a shocking 500 points, scoring 7,110 to set the new record. Rowan was roughly 2,500 points ahead of the second place finisher. The decathlete reportedly didn’t begin participating in track and field until his 70s once he retired from his job as an accountant. Rowan is a former boxer. The decathlon is arguably the most grueling event in track and field. Rowan competed in 10 events over the course of two days of competition. The first day consists of (in order): 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m. The second day’s events are 80m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1,500m. Yes, that’s right, the event includes pole vault. Other Canadians who have preformed well in the first two days of competition are Kris Koznell who grabbed gold in the 5,000m race walk and Jean Horne who also also received gold in women’s event.