The World Masters Games Athletics Schedule kicked off at 7.15am on Day 2 with wheelchair athlete, Kevin Gaidies, followed by the men’s running field aged 30-89 years and the women’s running field aged 30-79 years. All runners are categorised by their age into 5 year age groups and place medals are awarded for each category. There are also separate categories for masters athletes with disabilities who are also awarded place medals.
Kevin Gaidies (40-44 years), from Australia completed the 10km road race course with a time of 32 minutes 41 seconds (32:41), which placed him 4th by time in the overall field of 611 finishers. Numbers were slightly down from the 711 finishers at Edmonton's 2005 World Masters Games 10km road race.
Winner 10km Road Run
Tarcis Ancay (35-39 years) of Switzerland took line honours in 31:12 minutes with more than a 1 minute gap to tied 2nd place getters, Russian Federation’s Alexey Korobov (40-44 years) and Oleg Strizhankov (45-49 years)
James Harrison (45-49 years) was the first Australian home in 5th place with a time of 33:18. James was the national 10,000m champion for 4 years running between 1989-1994 and represented Australia at the World Cross Country Championships 5 times between 1987-1991.
First Female Masters Athlete 36th Overall
The winning lady in the World Masters Games Sydney 2009 10km road race in 37:09 was Lithuania’s Gyte Norgiliene (35-39 years) and Australia’s Jackie Fairweather (40-44 years) trailed Gyte by just 6 seconds at the finish. Jackie Fairweather (nee Gallagher), former 1996 World Triathlon and Duathlon Champion, was also a bronze medallist in the 2002 Commonwealth Games Marathon.
Local Sydney runner, and NSW state representative, Angela Williams (35-39 years) came a close third in 37:27.
Lots of Fast Female Masters Athletes
Julie Wilson (50-54 years) of New Zealand raced home in just 38:55 well ahead of Sydney’s local arch rival Margaret Beardslee while Rosemary Roediger (55-59 years) also another of Sydney’s local runners ran home in 40 minutes flat.
With these ladies running times of just under 4 minutes per kilometre, the world stage should applaud these masters athletes who in recent years have placed in Australian state open age events. It is not uncommon that age has not had the effect of slowing many middle aged male or female runners and in fact the largest part of the field came from the categories of men and women aged over 50 years.
Sydney Games Produced Faster Times than Edmonton
The Sydney World Masters Games 10km road race saw more than half the field finish the 10km road race in under 50 minutes despite the course being long according to measurements on Google maps. The steep competition demonstrated by the world masters games field of runners in all age categories is an inspiration to anyone beginning running regardless of their age.
Septuagenarians and Octogenarians can Also Set a Consistent Pace
The fastest 75-79 year man, from France, Christian Larcher ran a very respectable 50:02 with German competitor Leo Hohman just 9 seconds behind just slightly slower than category winner Japan’s Hiroshi Matsouka’s performance in the 2005 Edmonton World Masters Games.
Joan Mallory (75-79 years) was the oldest female competitor completing the course in just 1:15:16 and was a good half an hour ahead of the last place getter. In the womens 70-74 years category, New Zealand’s Pauline Hewitt won in 1:00:40, just 1 minute ahead of Germany’s Elfriede Willerts. Australia’s Anne Young took third place not far behind in 1:02: 24.
Australia’s Bob Lewis (80-84 years) took gold with a time of 58:09 as did Bert Jourdain (85-89 years) in 1:05:54 seconds. Both men were significantly faster than Roger Churchward’s outstanding run at the 2005 Edmonton World Masters Games.
One octogenarian was spotted running the hard surfaced 10km road race course barefoot!
So it’s never too late to start and enjoy running. The wonderful efforts of all these masters athletes is to be highly commended and hopefully inspiring to people of all ages to have a go.
See also the commentary on the World Masters Games 8km Cross Country event and sprint records of the over 70s and over 80s women. Many masters athletes are performing at elite levels - still!
 |
