Toruń, Poland — Team USATF had its largest medal haul to date as they brought in 19 medals on day four of competition at the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships. Still sitting in third behind host country Poland and Germany, U.S. athletes have stacked up a whopping 63 medals across the first four days. Sprints dominated the day as Team USATF won seven of the day’s ten golds in the 60m. Emma McGowan (Sugar Hill, Georgia) earned her second gold of the meet with an 8.32 to win the W50 division handily over Italy’s Agnese Claudia Rossi, who was second in 8.41. Charles Allie (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was the only sprinter in the M75 division to dip under nine seconds, running 8.79 for gold. Minutes later, Michael Kish (Nutley, New Jersey) ran through the line in 8.24 to take gold over Germany’s Helmut Meier in 8.46 in the M70 division. The men continued their sprint success as Val Barnwell (Brooklyn, New York) and Thomas Jones (Glenn Dale, Maryland) went one-two in the M65 60m final, taking gold and silver in 7.94 and 8.03. Allan Tissenbaum (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) ran 7.71 to out-stride Italy’s Guilio Morelli’s 7.77 for gold in the M60 division. A much closer race unfolded in the M50 division as Jeffery Mack (Virginia Beach, Virginia) beat Takeshi Fukuzato of Japan 7.26 to 7.29. Antoine Echols (Huntsville, Alabama) ended the team’s sprint glory with a bang, running a stellar 6.93 to blow away the M40 field by .11 seconds over Jamaica’s Johan O Gilvie in 7.04. Gloria Krug (New Oxford, Pennsylvania) added a third gold to her 2023 WMA Indoor Championships collection with an 8.01m throw in the W90 javelin. Durelle Schimek (Grass Valley, California) was the only W55 javelin thrower to surpass 40m, launching the spear 40.42m to comfortably take the gold. Capping off the day’s wins was Robert Qualls (Reno, Nevada), who earned gold in the M70 10000m road race.
Total medals: 63 Gold: 27 Silver: 25 Bronze: 11