INDIANAPOLIS – Many of America’s finest athletes age 30 and over will compete for national titles at the 2002 USA Masters Track and Field Championships, August 8-11 at the University of Maine in Orono.

Running events will be held at the Clarence Beckett Family Track & Field Center, an eight-lane, light blue oval inside the Alumni Stadium football field. Throwing events will be contested at an adjoining area north of the stadium.

The Championships return to Orono, where they were held in 1998. That edition of the meet was acknowledged by the nearly 1,100 competitors as hugely successful as eight world and 27 national age-group records were set. Leonore McDaniels, W70, of Virginia, accounted for three world and two U.S. records, and eleven national records were set by race walkers.

This year’s meet opens with the pentathlon and 5,000 meter championships on Thursday. Events on Friday include the 5,000m race walk and steeplechase and Saturday’s offerings include the 10,000m, 100m, and javelin. The meet wraps up on Sunday with the 10 km race walk for men and women, the 1,500 meters, relays, and hammer throw competitions.

Athletes to watch this week in Orono include women’s living-legend Phillipa Raschker from Marietta, Georgia. One of the most decorated athletes in masters track and field history, Raschker won an amazing ten gold medals and one silver medal at the 1997 World Veterans Athletic Championships in Durban, South Africa, where she set W50-54 world age-group records in seven events. Raschker, who won eight gold medals at last year’s USA Masters Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, recently entered the 55-59 age group and set three world records at the 2002 USA Indoor Masters Championships in Boston. Look for Raschker to continue to rewrite the record books this week.

In the men’s competition, Bill Collins, 51, of Missouri City, Texas, is expected to be a headliner. Known as one of the greatest male sprinters in masters history, Collins has won countless national indoor and outdoor titles. A gold medalist at the 2001 WAVA Championships in Brisbane, Australia in the 100m (11.39 seconds), 200m (23.18) and 400m (52.22), Collins also won gold in the 100m at the 1999 WAVA Championships before a pulled muscle prevented him from finishing the 200m final. Collins owns world age-group records indoors and outdoors in events ranging from the 50m to the 200m. He lowered his own world record at 60m (7.20) at this year’s USA Masters Indoor Championships. His previous world record of 7.23 was set in 2001.

The 2002 USA Masters Track & Field Championships are open to all men and women athletes ages 30 and over, who will compete in five-year age groups from 30-34, to 95 and over. Team and relay competitions are held in ten-year age groupings of 30+, 40+, 50+ etc. Although anyone can enter, only U.S. citizens can place in the Championships. Non-U.S. citizens, however, receive the same awards as citizens do. The age of a competitor on the first day of the Championships determines the competitor’s division for individual events. The age on the first day of the event of the youngest member determines the age division of a squad in a team event or relay.

For more information on the 2002 USA Masters Outdoor Championships visit: www.usatf.org.