Toruń, Poland — On the sixth day of competition at the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships, Team USATF tacked on 33 medals to their growing collection, bringing the tally before the final day of competition to 111. Highlighting the day was a world record in the M55 60m hurdles prelims. Derek Pye (Lakewood, California) smashed the existing record of 8.63 with a blistering 8.41 finish to take the top qualifying time alongside the age group record. Pye led through the last hurdle in the final, but took a fall before the finish before recovering to finish in sixth. Team USATF found success across the board in the 200m, picking up four age-group golds and 10 total medals across the event. Antoine Echols (Huntsville, Alabama) ran away with a world title in the M40 200m, running 22.33 over host country Poland’s Jakub Adamczyk in 22.77. A season’s best of 23.48 for Jeffery Mack (Largo, Florida) was good for the M50 200m gold over France’s Eric Bazin in 23.73. Michael Kish (Nutley, New Jersey) blew away the competition in the M70 200m as the only competitor to run sub-27. Kish’s 26.91 was good for gold - almost a second faster than Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s Simon Barrett in 27.79 for silver. Charles Allie (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) made a statement in the M75 200m with an undeniable win in 28.43 over Germany’s Friedhelm Adorf in 29.99. With their 200m victories, each of the men became double gold medalists at the championship. Rounding out a golden day on the track was Thad Wilson’s (Oxnard, California) 60m hurdles victory. Wilson dipped under 10 seconds in the M70 division to take a decisive win in 9.73 over Poland’s Henryk Szymura in 10.24. Two golds came from the 10km Road Race Walk - one from the W70 team and one individual gold by Spencer Parrish (Waterbury, Connecticut). Parrish walked a 1:32:43 season best to take the title in the M85 division while the women’s team combined to walk 3:26:55 for the win. Scott Eriksson (Plano, Texas) was one of only two throwers to surpass the 50m mark in the M60 discus, launching the disc 56.17m to earn gold. Gloria Krug (New Oxford, Pennsylvania) picked up yet another gold in the W90 hammer throw with her top mark of 13.45m coming in the first round. Rounding out the day was Samuel Okantey (Westerville, Ohio) with triple jump victory. Okantey found consistency around 13.50m, with his best leap of the day reaching out to 13.60m for the win in the M45 division.
Total medals: 111 Gold: 40 Silver: 44 Bronze: 27