Raschker wins 10 gold medals at Team U.S.A. captures 193 medals in Italy

Norway and Poland each won 10 medals at the 17th World Masters Track and Field Championships.

So did Phil Raschker.

How dominant was this 60-year-old Masters Hall of Famer at the Sept. 4-15 meet on Italy's northeastern shore? Philippa (Phil for short) Raschker replicated her amazing haul of the 1997 world meet in Durban, South Africa -- claiming 10 gold medals in the sprints, jumps and heptathlon. She also lowered her own W60 world record in the 80-meter hurdles twice (first to 13.36 in the heptathlon and later to 13.35 seconds in the single event) and joined a winning sprint relay team.

While the world media clucked over Tyson Gay's eight sprint races over six days at the IAAF Osaka world meet, Raschker competed on eight of the Masters meet's 11 days, sprinting nearly two miles while racing, jumping or throwing 21 times. (She missed an 11th medal when the 4x400 meter relay team she anchored took fourth.) For her efforts, she was named USA Track & Field Athlete of the Week. Raschker led a 430-member U.S. team that outdid itself at the largest gathering of track athletes in World Masters Athletics history.

How busy were the ovals in Riccione, Misano Adriatico and San Giovanni? In the 100-meter event alone, organizers fired the gun on 307 heats and finals. And that didn't include the 55 opening 100s in the decathlon (boasting 29 men over age 70).

In Italy, nearly 9,000 athletes from a record 90 nations collected a total of 1,905 medals. Although the host country fielded a third of the entrants and Germany nearly 900, Team USA (with less than 5 percent of the entrants) won 12 percent of the gold medals awarded (82). Germany topped the medal standings with 315, while Italy was second with 219 and USA was third with 193. Some 28 world-age group records were set, including three each (100 meters, 200 meters and shot put) by Brazil's Frederico Fischer, 90, and Germany's Friedrich Mahlo, 95.

Atlanta's Jeanne Daprano, 71, set a world age-group record of 1:17.92 in the 400 meters. And her husband, Bill, had a hand in two U.S. records (the 4x100 meter and 4x400 meter relays for ages M80).

Carol Finsrud of Lockhart, Texas, missed her own world record in the weight pentathlon by 21 points, but did win the gold medal. Finsrud, 50, also won the W50 discus, hammer throw and weight throw and took silver in the shot put (and 10th in the javelin). The meet was kicked off with windy speeches at performer-filled festivities, with one British athlete commenting: "The Opening Ceremony was fun up to the point the speeches began."

But that night and the next morning, hurricane-force winds attacked -- uprooting trees and forcing a delay in cross country races. The weather turned gentle after that.

Nolan Shaheed, 58, of Pasadena -- who won the 5,000 meters and 1,500 meters and took silver in the 800 meters -- recounted this incident involving U.S. Masters champion Ben James, a recent cancer survivor in the M50 final of the 400 meters: "At the firing of the gun, Ben fell out of his blocks and landed on his back. Thinking there would be a recall, he laid there for a good 2 seconds before realizing that the race would not be stopped. He recovered and ran a burning backstretch, reaching the 200-meter mark in 23.8 and catching the field by 240 meters. But the great effort drained him and at 300 he shut it down and jogged in.

"He tried to file a protest on the g rounds that a recall should have happened but was denied. He stayed on a grassy area to watch the other finals with a few of us. Sharon Warren, the 100- and 200-meter silver medalist in W45, was there to console a very depressed Ben James when all of a sudden up walked (the United Kingdom's) Stephen Peters, who came in third in Ben's race and said, 'Had you not fallen at the start, you may have beaten me and this medal would have been yours, so I want you to have it.'

"Ben was in shock and at first could not accept the medal. Sharon was touched to tears, and I had never witnessed such an unselfish act coming from a true gentleman."

If the sportsmanship was world-class, the venues weren't. "When WMA (World Masters Athletics) awarded the event to Riccione, I wonder what lies they were told about athlete warm-up facilities," wrote British sprinter Tom Phillips. "Effectively there were none. . . . On the final day of the (meet), even the Riccione grass was locked and barred to athletes, because three guys from the local softball team had been given exclusive use!"

Moreover: "At Riccione, it all fell flat, with field events happening where spectators couldn't see them, and a big glass soccer-fan proof screen between the grandstand and the track."

Such issues were on the minds halfway through the meet, when national team delegates convened on Sept. 11, a rest day for the meet. Sacramento, Calif., and Porto Alegre, Brazil, were the lone bidders for the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships -- but even though the Brazilians planned an unpopular January meet, the California reps were nervous. A big hurdle was that athletes expressed concern over the United States' post-9/11 visa restrictions.

So when delegates at the Riccione General Assembly met to hear presentations, it was unclear which bid would prevail. The result? Sacramento beat Porto Alegre, 69 to 39 votes. The Golden State will host the 19th world masters championships in July 2011.

Phil Raschker will be 64. Look for another fistful of medals.

Ken Stone blogs at masterstrack.com.