Posted: July 23, 2007

Athletics (RRW): Splendid World Masters Record For Masai

From David Monti © 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com The ever-durable Edith Masai, who turned 40 on April 4, not only won a silver medal at Saturday's African Games 10,000m, but she smashed the world masters record for the distance by more than 40 seconds. Masai, of Kenya, clocked 31:31.18 to finish second behind Ethiopia's Mestawot Tufa (31:26.05). Her mark blew away Frenchwoman Nicole Leveque's previous W40 record of 32:12.07 set in Helsinki in 1994. Leveque set her mark at age 43; the previous best mark by a 40 year-old was 32:18.03 by Anne Keenan Buckley of Ireland set in Camaiore, Italy, in 2002, which Masai also surpassed. Masai remains the Kenyan record-holder for 10,000m with a personal best of 30:30.26 set in Helsinki in 2005. She was the IAAF World Championships bronze medalist at 5000m in 2003, and twice won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships 4-K gold medal in 2003 and 2004. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest