Posted: May 24, 2006

Athletics: USATF News & Notes, Volume 7, Number 39

Gatlin takes over IAAF rankings lead

Reigning World and Olympic 100m champion, and co-World record holder Justin Gatlin is the new Overall Best Male Athlete based on the IAAF World Rankings.

The 24-year-old sprinter ran 9.77 seconds (1,486 points) at the IAAF World Athletics Tour meet in Doha, Qatar, to equal Asafa Powell's World record from Athens last summer. Thereby Gatlin increased his lead over his Jamaican counterpart in the 100m Event Ranking, and also claimed the top spot in the Men's Overall Rankings, passing Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, the previous leader.

In other rankings news, Wallace Spearmon clocked a world-leading 200m time of 20.06 seconds (1312 points) to win at the adidas Track Classic in Carson, Calif. He moved up from third place to take the lead in the Men's 200m Event Ranking ahead of his compatriots Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin.

For more information on the IAAF Rankings, visit IAAF.org.

Three masters world records set at Striders Meet of Champions

The annual Southern California Striders Meet of Champions at Long Beach State University featured near perfect weather conditions over the weekend as two men and one woman set world age-group records.

Records were set by Willie Gault in the M45 200, Bud Held in the M75 pole vault and Kathy Bergen in the W65 high jump.

Gault ran an impressive 100 meters in 10.80 seconds with a maximum-legal wind of 2.0 meters per second out of Lane 1. His performance nearly equaled the 10.79 he ran at Occidental College the previous week.

Two hours later, Gault flew out of Lane 3 in the 200m, and became the oldest man to break 22 seconds. Gault clocked 21.91 seconds (+1.3 mps) to lower his own M45 world record of 22.08 from February, which improved upon the listed M45 WR of 22.13 by Kevin Morning in 2002.

Bud Held, 78, raised his own M75 world record in the pole vault, clearing 2.97 meters/9 feet, 9 inches, bettering his own 2.96/9-8.50 set at the Decatur masters nationals in 2004. Held cleared on his second attempt and had the bar raised to 3.05m/10-0, but missed three times.

Not to be outdone, Kathy Bergen, a champion sprinter over the years, has begun competition in the high jump and cleared 1.35m/4 feet, 5 inches, on her second try to better the listed W65 world record of 1.34m/4-4.75 by Holland's Rietje Dijkman in 2004.

Chaplin-Swann sets 1,500m record

World masters champion Lesley Chaplin-Swann, 48, a Georgia resident who competes for the SoCal/Fleet Feet TC, recently set an American women's record in Memphis, Tennessee. Her time of 4 minutes, 47.36 seconds bettered the long standing W45 outdoor 1.500m record of 4:48.19 by Joan Colman (now Joan Ottoway) in 1989.

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