Leading ladies shine at USA Masters Indoor Champs

BOSTON - Breaking records has become routine for Nadine O'Connor, Kathryn Martin and Phil Raschker, but continuing to rewrite the record books never gets "old" for these three masters legends. They proved that Saturday afternoon at the 2007 USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships, while Joy Upshaw Margerum proved that records - even those of Raschker - are made to be broken.

O'Connor (Del Mar, Calif.) broke her second listed world record in as many days on Saturday, leaping 4.16m/13-6.75 in the W65 long jump to follow up on the pole vault world record she set Friday.

Martin, of Northport, N.Y., set her second American record of the meet on Saturday by running 5:27.89 to win the W55 mile. The recently minted 55-year-old and 2004 USATF masters athlete of the year also broke the W55 American record in the 3,000m on Friday night (10:35.76).

Margerum, whose family includes world-class long jumpers in her father Monte (who in 1954 broke Jesse Owens' high school LJ record) and 2004 Olympian sister Grace, has made a name for herself in just a few years competing as a masters athlete. Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center, the 46-year-old track coach from Palo Alto, Calif., ran 9.13 in the 60m hurdles, breaking the W45 American record of 9.18 set by Raschker in 1995. Two years ago, at age 44, Upshaw-Margerum set the W40 record (9.08). In the 60m sprint on Saturday, she just missed another Raschker AR when she ran 8.06 seconds, just .04 off of Raschker's record, and she also won the long jump (5.22m/17-1.5).

That Raschker's records are no longer untouchable is a testament to the rapidly growing strength of women's masters competition, according to Upshaw-Margerum: "It used to be just the girls in Europe competing," she said. "But now, with the fitness craze, things are getting a lot more serious." As for breaking Raschker's records, "It adds something to shoot for. I have a good relationship with Phil. She likes that she put it out there for us to go for, and I've gotten a few or her records."

Raschker, of Marietta, Ga., continued her W60 record march on Saturday with American records in the 60 meters (8.87) and long jump (4.37m/14-4), where all six of her attempts were well past the American record. She also won the 60m hurdles (10.16). She had broken two world records and four American records during Friday's competition.

More records came from Pay Carstensen of Spring Hill, Florida, who posted a mark of 14.00m/45-11.25 in the weight throw for an M75 American record. Betty Jarvis of Aberdeen, N.C., set her second record of the meet with an American record in the W91 shot put (3.77m/12-4.5). Milan Jamrich of Houston broke the American record in the M55 high jump with a clearance of 1.73m/5-8, and 57-year-old Nolan Shaheed of Pasadena, Calif., ran a 4:26.7 hand-timed 1,500m during his mile race to break the American record in M55.

Alamo, Texas, resident Ralph Maxwell improved the listed long jump American record in the M85 age group to 3.25m/10-8 - a remarkable leap for the 87-year-old.

More Friday-night records

Friday night's 3,000-meter races turned up a host of records that were submitted on Saturday. They included American records by M35 Eric Green (Pontiac, Mich., 9:00.06); M55 Nolan Shaheed (Pasadena, Calif., 9:10.27); W55 Kathryn Martin (Northport, N.Y., 10:35); W65 Marie-Louise Michelsohn (New York, N.Y., 12:034.78). Also in Friday action, M60 John Altendorf set a pending AR in the men's pole vault with a clearance of 3.93m/12-10.75).

For results from the 2007 USA Masters Indoor Championships, visit www.usatf.org