Shaheed

Only 6 over-50s got under 5 minutes in the mile at the USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships - and our own Dave Albo was one of them.

In the 55-59 age group, living legend 58-year-old jazz trumpeter Nolan Shaheed won in 4:43.72 -- good enough to have won gold in the younger age-group and a massive 30 SECONDS clear of the silver medalist!!! Someone check my math, as I don't believe the numbers (result below).

M50 1 Mile Run
1 102 Cannon, David M51 Club Northwe,Seattl 4:43.89
2 118 Chantry, Stephen M53 Colonial Roa,Willia 4:45.89

Official results aren't posted yet, but thanks to a report by "Tardis Runner" on the letsrun.com Henry Rono comeback thread, we learn that Nolan Shaheed missed a new world record but won the Fountain of Youth Masters Mile at Canby High School in 4:42, a new American record for age 55.

"Tardis" reports that Henry looked "a little stiff" finishing in 5:43.57 and had splits of 1:25.07, 1:26:85 and 1:27:19. He has posted pictures here, including a great shot of Shaheed and Rono together: note the difference in weight!

Age-group records may tumble tomorrow at the Fountain of Youth Mile at the Canby high school track in Oregon. And how I wish I was going to be on that track!

Maestro jazz trumpeter Nolan Shaheed is the one I'm going to be watching. Flying in from concerts in DC, he could push back the men's 55-59 world record (4:40.4, set by Australia's Jack Ryan in 1977). However, Kenyan superstar Henry Rono -- who has declared his intention of breaking that record -- is not going to challenge him. Henry will be running, but is nursing an injured hamstring and quad sustained running the 5,000m track race at the end of the Hillsdale College "Gina" Relays meet in Hillsdale, Michigan, a couple of weeks back. The meet ran late and the 5k kicked off at 1.15 on a cold morning. Henry covered the first 1600m in 5:44 and finished in 18:55.