Rietje Dijkman, W80, NED, 2005 WMA Best Female Athlete, Charles Allie, M75, USA, 2013 and 2018 WMA Best Male Athlete and WMA 2010 – 2019 Athletes of the Decade, Karla Del Grande, W65, CAN, and Arild Busterud, M75, NOR, earned these honors by setting several world records and winning many WMA Championships. Each of them continues to excel. Rietje cruised to victory in 60m. Charles repeated his WMACi2019 60m win in a new age group. Karla earned 60m silver even though she is the oldest in the category and is better at 200m and 400m. Arild was at the top of the podium for the second time this Championship winning discus by almost a meter.
World records were set in W60 60m and javelin. Nicole Alexis, FRA, continued her fantastic season by running 8.33. Host country athlete, Genowefa Patla, overcame the cold to throw a javelin 41.14m, over 3.5m farther than the previous record. Emmanuelle Mcgowan, W50, USA, again repeated her WMACi2019 accomplishment, this time by winning 60m in 8.32.
10km races took over the streets around the Arena. The closest race of the day was between W40 runners, Somaya Bousaid, TUN, 35:31, and April Lund, USA, 35:31, who won the WMA Short Course Cross Country Championships last month. Declan Toal, IRL, 33:02, outlasted Luciano Trujillo, MEX, 33:06, in the M50 race. Alex Stienstra, NED, 34:56 was outkicked by fellow M60 runner, Ireneusz Kasprzak, POL, 34:53.
60m spectators saw many exciting, close races as usual for a WMACi. The closest was M55 where Christopher Warburton, CAN, 7.59, Piotr Skrzynski, POL, 7.60, David Gibbon, USA, 7.62, and David Hayde, IRL, 7.64, finished within 0.05 seconds of each other. Sara Wiss, SWE, 7.62, edged Easter Grant, USA, 7.65 for the gold in W35. Avril Dillon, IRL, won W40 in 7.81, just ahead of Lisa Boland’s, GBR, 7.83. W45 World Champion, Yvette Henry, GBR, 8.03 eclipsed Vyara Parvanova, BUL, 8.07. Masayuki Yano, JPN, 6.88, outran Rondrick Parker, USA, 6.91, for the M35 title. Jeffery Mack, USA, 7.26, won M50 gold over Takeshi Fukuzato, JPN, 7.29.
