Great turnout for the first Ontario Masters event of the year.
We hosted the 1st Annual OMA 5000m Invitational. 11 runners went under the Canadian Record for the Indoor distance – establishing eight new age-group records.
Leanne Shafir led the field through a brisk sub-1:30 at 4oom
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W35 Sue Joy of Physi-Kult ran 19:34.98 (old CAN 20:04 Diane Palmason 1978)
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W40 Leanne Shafir of UTTC
ran 19:31.50 (old CAN 24:20 Gail Schmidt 2008)
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W45 Annie Bunting of UTTC ran 19:06.72
(old CAN 22:25 Donna Kraft 2008)
Tracey Snarr (20:34) also broke the record.
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W50 Agathe Nicholson of Physi-Kult ran 18:58.48
(old CAN 23:30Debbie Obokata 2008)
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W60 Diane Marrow of Longboat Roadrunners ran 23:51.73
(old CAN 29:43 Susan Kelly 2008)
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W65 Nancy Wells of Longboat Roadrunners ran 24:53.81
(no previous CAN record)
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M70 Jack Geddes of Scarborough Masters ran 22:13.69
(old CAN 23:53 Guy Poyton 1982) 30 years old !!
M70′s Vern Christensen (22:56) and Keijo Tavassalo (22:16) also broke the record.
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M80 David Willett ran 30:35.78
(no previous CAN record)
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The M60 entrants John Clarke and Ken Hamilton were the only one to not best the record – 19:01 , but it’s held by Ed Whitlock!
The race was originally suggested by M55 Jerry Kooymans, who wanted to go after the 17:27 record. Unfortunately, Jerry was injured and couldn’t compete.
In the 50m Hurdles there were two CAN record performances;
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M35 David Valenzuela ran 7.59 in the Semi, breaking Neil Sander’s 7.91 CAN record from 1987
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M50 Don Ritchie ran 8.19 in the Final,
breaking John VanderVleuten’s 8.4 CAN record from 1989
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M90 Garry Bachman of the Throwers Club put the Shot 8.50m, breaking the 5.18 CAN record held by William Falconer BC (2011) by over 3 metres!
