Amazing can be good or bad but you should know by now that MastersRankings always strives to find the positive in everything related to our sport. Did not need to look hard to find many. The 2018 World Masters Athletics (WMA) Championships was held in Málaga, Spain from 4 September through 16 September. How can an article properly cover 8,197 registered athletes from 101 nations having 22,903 performances, winning 1,879 medals, WMA and World Masters Rankings news? Hope you enjoy our attempt to do all justice! Here we go with Amazing…

…Performances & Pictures – Links

WMA Results Site (Results in Rankings)

Meet Website

Stadia Medalists

Non-Stadia Medalists

Photos: Dave Albo; Graeme Dahl; Rob Jerome; Tom Phillips; Alex Rotas; Doug Smith; Málaga Photographers. A special thanks to Dave, Graeme, Rob, Tom, Alex and Doug. You do so much for our sport and it is much appreciated. Rob provided pictures below except where noted.

…Performances – World Records

W80 Evaun Williams of Great Britain led all athletes by exceeding 5 WRs: Shot Put (10.07m – current record 9.66m); Javelin (26.06m – current record 21.83m); Hammer (35.16m & 37.85m – current record 29.58m) and Throws Pentathlon (6080 points – current record 4845 points!!!!). Evaun won 4 gold medals and 1 silver. It may be time for a thrower to be named World Masters Athlete of the Year; it’s never happened. Of the 30 World Records set in Málaga, 12 were set in the Throws.

A veteran of many World Championships, W75 Marianne Maier of Austria set 3 World Records in Málaga: Shot Put (12.12); Heptathlon, pictured here (6658 points); and 80m Hurdles (17.37 (-0.7)). The listed World Record in W75 Shot Put is 11.10 by Evaun Williams. Marianne also won Silver Medals in Long Jump and High Jump.

W75 Carol Lafayette-Boyd put on an incredible show by bettering World Records, her own, in 100m, 200m and High Jump. Carol set the W75 High Jump WR with a leap of 1.24m and twice set the WR in the W75 200m (once in prelims; once in final). Her final 200m WR was 31.56 (-0.7). A +2.3m/s wind negated WR consideration for her amazing 14.83 100m time (her current record, as of August 28, is 15.15).

https://www.facebook.com/stan.guttman/videos/2176395985704982/

In addition to Carol, another great Canadian athlete setting multiple World Records in Málaga was Karla Del Grande who set the WR in the W65 100m (pictured here) with a time of 14.04 (-1.5), and in the W65 200m with a time of 28.83 (-1.4). Truly one of the greatest Masters sprinters in history.

Another athlete to pick up two World Records in Málaga was W80 Yoko Nakano of Japan. Here is Yoko looking pleasantly surprised when she set the WR in the 800m with a time of 3:30.41. She also set the WR in the 5000m with a time of 25:40.14.

Another athlete who set two World Records in Málaga was M90 Yoshiyuki Shimizu of Brazil, whom I first met in Lahti in 2009. Yoshiyuki set the WR in the M90 200m with a time of 37.19 (-1.4) and the 400m with a time of 1:29.35. Pictured here with the Silver Medalist in the 400m, Luis H. Torres Rosa of Puerto Rico.Yoshiyuki won three more Gold Medals in 100m (18.46 -3.5m/s), Long Jump (3.25 +0.1m/s) and Triple Jump (6.98 -1.4m/s).

M70 Arild Busterud of Norway won three Gold Medals and two Silver Medals plus set World Records in Weight Throw with a mark of 23.15m and Throws Pentathlon with a score of 5067. Arid’s accomplishments were impressive. The listed record of 22.33m was set by multi-Olympian, Ed Burke of USA.

Team USA brought home three World Records from Málaga. Two were in Relays: the W55 4×100 team of Sandy Triolo, Adriene Allen, Kathleen Shook and Joy Upshaw and the W80 4×400 team of Rose Green, Jeanne Daprano, Carolyn Langenwalter and Lynne Hurrell. The W80 team of Rose, Jeanne, Carolyn and Christel Donley also missed the 4×100 World Record by 0.11. Rose also won Gold Medals in 100m, 200m and 400m. One of the most decorated athletes at Malaga WMAC was M70 Charles Allie who won 5 Gold Medals and set the World Record in the 400m with an astounding time of 57.26; more than a second better than his record set earlier this year. Charlie’s other Gold Medals were in 100m, 200m, M65 4×100 and M65 4×400.

Another Canadian bringing home a World Record from Málaga was M85 Ted Rowan who set a WR in the M85 Decathlon with a point total of 7110. The remaining World Records were set by Javelin Throwers W70 Jarmila Klimesova of Czech Republic (27.95m) and M70 Esa Kiuru of Finland (53.13m); M55 Norbert Demmel of Germany in Throws Pentathlon (5103 pts); M50 Decathlete, Thomas Stewens of Germany (8068 pts); M55 Long Jumper, Gianni Becatti of Italy (6.50m +0.0); W45 Minori Hayakari of Japan in Steeplechase (6:51.51); W35 Vania Silva of Portugal in Weight Throw (18.34m).

…Performances & Competitions

Angela Copson, 2017 Second Female WMA Athlete of the Year, led all individual winners with 6 Gold Medals. Her medals were in 800m (2:54.63), 5000m (22:08.19), 400m (1:17.47), 1500m (5:48.07), 6km Cross Country (27:27) and 10k Road Race (45:38). No surprise as she is the World Record holder in several of these. Angela also helped Great Britain win W70 4×400 and take bronze in W70 4×100.

Julia Huapaya, W90 of Peru took home five Gold Medals. Julia won Discus (12.18m), Hammer (19.62m), Shot Put (4.86m), Weight Throw (7.57m) and Throws Pentathlon (3709 pts). Lauri Helle, M90 of Finland, and Yoko Nakano, W80 of Japan, won 4 Gold Medals each. Yoko won 800m (3:30.41), 5000m (25:40.14), 10k Road Race (56:17), and Half Marathon (2:07:36). Lauri won Hammer (16.18m), Discus (15.82m), Weight Throw (7.66m), Throws Pentathlon (2876 pts) plus took second in Shot Put (6.68m) and Javelin (14.15m).

Athletics Championships are always exciting. This was no different with competitions, including longer races, being won by the slimmest of margins. One such competition involved four Gold Medal winner and multiple World Record holder, Carol Finsrud, W60 of USA. Carol already won Discus with a throw of 40.73m, just 0.03m short of her World Record, Hammer (43.42m) and Weight Throw (14.89m) when the Throws Pentathlon was contested. Carol led Tiny Hellendoorn after Hammer, Discus and Javelin but Hammer and Discus were over 4m and 6m shorter than her throws earlier in the Championships. Tiny was throwing first and Carol eleventh in the final event, Weight Throw. Tiny pulled ahead of Carol by 27 points on her last throw. Carol responded by throwing 14.06m to win by 1 point!

…People & WMA

Every masters meet is highly reliant on volunteers who work tirelessly often under difficult circumstances and for long hours. One official shared some competition stories that really demonstrate how lucky we, Masters Athletes, are to have them. One such story was about officiating Javelin safely at night. They would make sure the sector was clear and use spot lights to reflect off the javelin so it was always visible. Please thank officials and volunteers.

Wow. In spite of being volunteers, WMA, including regional and affiliate, leadership is always on the move. Many were going from one meeting to another plus addressing issues sometimes without taking time out to enjoy the competitions. Richard Amigo, was filling three major roles during the championship. Juan Ordóñez taking on anything that needed doing ranging from his official duties to finding a cable so presentations could be made and translator during the General Assembly without a break. Kurt Kaschke constantly checking on people and promoting good will, giving athlete diplomas and medals – always striving for a positive competitive experience for all. Mária Alfaro and Winston Thomas constantly checking to make sure all the details have been addressed. Margit Jungmann, Brian Keaveney and Stan Perkins dealing with a barrage of issues making sure the competitions continued fairly. Other people we saw giving much of themselves to benefit WMA and our sport were Sandy Pashkin, Keith Lively, Jean Thomas, Lynne Schickert and Stew Marshall (congratulations on your first WMA Championship medal a World Champion isn’t bad for a first medal!).

Team managers and representatives work incredibly hard and long hours. Velentyna Krepkina, Ukraine, seemed exhausted one day while dealing with some team challenges (grateful she didn’t seem to mind having the identical conversation two days in a row). While most were enjoying down time or sightseeing, USA representatives, Phil Greenwald, Rex Harvey, Robert Thomas and Latashia Key (Jerry Bookin-Weiner would have been there but was busy taxiing people around like he has been for the fortnight) spent hours scouring results and applications to select USA’s relay teams.

Suspect most are unaware of everything these people do – imagine being in their shoes. Seeing everyone work so hard for us without much / any thanks is reassuring. Thank you to everyone involved in our sport for looking after us.

WMA News from Málaga:

WMA General Assembly including Council and Championship elections

Edmonton 2021 WMA Indoor Championships

Gothenburg 2022 WMA Outdoor Championships

The New WMA Elected President Margit Jungmann

Introducing the new WMA Council for 2018-2020

Progress for World Masters Rankings

MastersRankings, also known as World Masters Rankings, made the trip to improve cooperation with national representatives so more performances could be listed easier. Compiling the lists right now is very laborious. It is too expensive to continue like this so cooperation is essential for this site’s survival. Countries can help by either providing database exports or helping get meet results inserted into our databases. Several nations and WMA representatives were not clear of the challenges and how they could help. We were able to clarify these and set plans for how they will help make listing results easier so this effort is affordable.

Meeting in Málaga was the first opportunity for many national representatives to give feedback and express concerns. The policies we currently have will change as we work out compromises that maintain the benefits to Masters Athletes. All policy adjustments, like official rankings lists with only wind legal performances.

Thank you to all who came to visit MastersRankings in the Main Stadium in Málaga. Meeting athletes is thrilling. There are still many athletes who are completely unaware of the site and seeing their faces light up when they saw they were listed was very gratifying. Many were taking pictures of the screen! It also demonstrated why listing everyone, regardless of capabilities, is the right thing to do. Those of you familiar with MastersRankings and what makes it meaningful understand all-inclusive lists has the biggest, positive impact on our sport.