The weather was perfect for the Ontario Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships at the Toronto Track & Field Centre on Sunday, June 21st.

8 Canadian Records were broken at our largest meet in Ontario Masters history.

Earl hit the split in the 800m on an M80 World Record pace

'The Great Earl' finished in 2:48.95....breaking his own WORLD RECORD of 2:53.29 by over 4 seconds !

W55 Karla Del Grande continued her run on the CAN records, breaking her own 13.71 mark (set at last year's meet) with a 13.47 in the 100m.

M55 Kerry Smith broke Tom Dickson's 12.05 CAN record in the 100m with a fine 12.02

Kerry also broke the Meet Record of 12.3 that was shared by Charles Agnoo (93) and Scott Tyler (95).

M65 Tony Powell has been breaking his share of CAN records as well....and Earl Fee records at that!

He ran 26.53 in the 200m to break Earl's 27.82 CAN from 1994, and John Grant's 27.6 Meet Record set in 1985.

Ana Maria Neilson really let it fly to brak her own CAN record (32.84) set at last year's championships. She threw 33.17 this year. That just breaks the 10 year old MR set by April Capwill of 33.16

Other CAN records were;

M45 Dennis McWhinney        Triple Jump      12.32      Old record 12.18 Alan Slater in 1988   Also a MR (Alan's mark)

W50 Barb Dabrowki               Javelin                34.65      Old record 34.42 Barb in 2007.  Old MR 26.04 June Meyer 1988

W60 Rhona Trott                     Weight Throw   12.68      Old record 11.79 Liz McBlain '08.  Old MR 8.80 Dortha Swanson 1997

W60 Rhona Trott broke Edith Gray's 15.89 100m Meet Record set in 1996 with a 15.50 mark.

M35 Luis Vega Penso, running in his first Masters meet, ran 22.54 in the 200m - breaking the 23.10 MR held by Malik Crepsac (2005).

Luis broke the M35 CAN records in the 100m (10.75) and the 200m (21.66) last year - that were held by Ray Cardinal and stood for 25 years!

M55 Kerry Smith ran 24.50 in the 200m, just missing Harold Morioka's 24.44 CAN record. He did break Rudolf Valentine's 25.22 MR that's 30 years old !!

M45 Mike Sherar ran a fine 51.39 in the 400m - breaking the 30 year old MR (54.31) of Rudy Enders Mike broke the 800m CAN record last week in London with a 1:58.14

Three of the four Silver Medal 4X400 team members from Riccione are in this shot. Chris Lemassif (OMA Membership Secretary) (L) and, just peaking over Mike's right shoulder, Paul Osland - the Vice President of the Ontario Masters.

Karla got her usual great start in the 400m - breaking her own 1:10.07 MR set last year. She ran 1:07.88...over two seconds faster!

Karla also broke her own MR of 28.44 with a 28.04 in the 200m.

M55 Jim Robinson came up from Rochester to break the 11:55 MR (Ken Carman 1986) with a 11:14 mark in the Steeple.

Jim then went on to win the 800m in 2:17.14, drive all the way downtown to pick up his wife, and make it back to win the 1500m in 4:45.28.  Making it downtown and back on a Sunday afternoon may have been his most outstanding performance!

W35 Diane Bedford broke fellow Quebecer Helen Trembley's 28.92 MR (1990) in the Jave with a fine 32.85

W30 Sarah Raetsen broke her own MR (31:11 in 2006) with a 29:41.38 in the 5000m Racewalk.

Sarah is the Captain of Team Canada going to Lahti for the World Championships next month.

W75 June-Marie Provost finished the Racewalk in 38:58.27 - breaking Margaret Walker's 41:18 MR set in 2000.

Other Meet Records were;

W60  Rhona Trott                    200m                 32.89         Old MR 35.7    Janet Holmes    1994

M30  David Valenzuela           High Jump       1.83m        Old MR 1.75    Sean Pellow       2008

W30  Jennifer Pineo               High Jump        1.40m        No previous record.

M30  Chris Martin                    Triple Jump      14.26m      No previous record.

W30  Marie-Josee Le Jour    Shot Put             13.56         No previous record.

M80  Evalds Viskers               Shot Put             9.97           Old MR 9.90      Evalds                 2006

W30  Marie-Josee Le Jour    Discus               49.94         No previous record.

M50  Don Bailey                      Discus                47.29        Old MR  46.66   Jim Wettenhall   2008

W50  Barb Dabrowski            Discus               25.09         Old MR 23.38   June Meyer          1989

W60  Rhona Trott                    Hammer            28.05         Old MR 24.94   Dortha Swanson 1998

W60  Rhona Trott                    Javelin                21.35        Old MR 17.00   Dortha Swanson  1998

One of many noteable performances was the 27:25  5000mRW  of Jianping (JP) Xu. He was first M40, and first overall in the race.

What is remarkable, is that JP is a Triathlete, and just took up racewalking a couple of months ago. He also ran 1:00 in the 400m, and won the 800m in 2:21.

We had a ceremony at the Lunch break to honour our first-ever Honorary Life Member nominees Jean Horne and Mike Freeman. (see the Hall Of Fame page for more details).

Many thanks to Al LePage for providing the Officials lunch, and to our sponsor Formula Honda.