INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — Team USATF went out strong at the World Masters Athletics Championships, earning 36 medals over the final two days to finish competition with 175 total medals and an impressive 72 golds. Day ten kicked off with four gold medals in the short hurdle events. Damon Blakemore (M60) and Dave McNair (M65) ran 14.86 and 16.88 seconds respectively to win their age divisions in the 100m hurdles. Tami Graf (W85) ran 52.44 in the 80m hurdles to win her fifth gold medal across a myriad of events. Rounding out the pack was Thad Wilson (M70), who ran an impressive 12.86 to win the 80m hurdles by .18 seconds over Henryk Szymura of Poland. A final individual gold of the day came as Antonio Palacios (M55) hopped, skipped, and jumped his way to a triple jump win. Palacios only needed three attempts to win the event, soaring to 12.43m on his third jump to win over Michele Ticò of Italy, who jumped 12.37m on his last attempt for silver. Team USATF wrapped up day ten of competition with three more golds in the 4x100m. The W45 relay team of Roxanne Brockner, Emma McGowan, Lisa Daley, and Cynthia McNamee ran 51.46 to prevail in an exciting race over the host country’s team, who ran 52.01 for a Finnish silver. In the W75 race, Team USATF quartet, Mary Trotto, Angela Staab, and Barbara Warren ran 1:45.10 for victory. The final gold of the day came in the M55 4x100m, where the team of Wayne Foulke, Lee Bridges, Clinton Aurelien, and David Gibbon ran 47.26 to win a close race over Italy, who ran 48.98 for second. On the final day of competition, Team USATF racked up an impressive nine golds to finish with a whopping 73 victories in Tampere. Highlighting the final day of competition was the M45 4x400m relay. Anchored by Rawle Delisle, Team USATF prevailed in a photo-finish over Australia for the victory. Both teams were clocked at 3:40.92, and the judges were unable to separate them after a long delay while they carefully examined the finish line photo. In the end they declared the race a rare tie and declared both Team USATF and Team Australia co-champions. The final gold on the track was secured in the W75 4x400m relay, where Ann Carter, Angela Staab, Mary Trotto, and Barbara Hensley motored around the oval to a 10:09.70 finish to stand atop the podium. The half marathon proved successful as the team lugged home seven more golds - three individual and four team. Richard Lee (M60) ran 1:18:32 to triumph over Ricardo Daniel Sosa Aubone of Argentina by 46 seconds. April Lund (W35) ran 1:19:51 to win by over nine minutes over Finland’s Minna Maasilta in 1:28:55. Christine Kennedy (W65) won the final individual gold in the event, running 1:37:04 to win by more than 11 minutes over Mirjam Tynkkynen of Finland. In addition to the individual victories, the M65, M75, W35, and W70 teams all won half marathon age division team titles. In total, Team USATF raked in 72 golds in Finland across an impressive 11 days of competition. In the still unofficial team medal standings Team USATF wound up in third place behind hosts Finland, and Germany, and just ahead of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
A full list of results can be found here. Join the conversation with USATF on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook using the hashtag #USATF.