Tom Bernhard capped off the 9th Annual Pride Meet at San Francisco State’s Cox Stadium with a pending American Record in the M65 Mile. His 5:11.74 bested the current record of 5:12.21 set back in 2007 by Frank Condon and currently tops the world rankings.
Bernhard’s AR wasn’t the only global chart-topper coming out of this year’s Pride Meet. Nancy Thomas’s 5:17.06 for the W45 Mile put her atop the world rankings and was less than 10 seconds shy of Jeanne Lasee-Johnson’s 5:07.76 W45 American Record. Ian Reed’s 29.40m for the M85 Discus was good enough to earn him a #1 ranking and was just 141 centimeters off Ross Carter’s American M85 Discus Record of 30.81m.
Perennial Pride Meet standouts, Joy Upshaw (W55) and Irene Obera (W82), put on a multi-event show. Upshaw – coming off pending American Records of 13.04 in the 80m Hurdles and 27.54 in the 200m set back in June – ran 13.09 and 28.23 in these events, respectively. Joy added #2 global performances with her 51.75 in the 300m hurdles and 4.70m in the Long Jump. Irene Obera followed up her record-setting performances from the prior two Pride Meets with several chart-topping performances. Her 5.58m in the Triple Jump ranks #2 globally (just 33cm short of the American Record) and her 0.95m in the High Jump ranks #3 globally (just 11cm under the American Record). Irene – already the American Record holder in the W80 Long Jump – posted a #1 ranking jump this year with her 2.65m.
Multi-event specialist Doug Osland (M61) continued to hurdle and jump his way into the world rankings with his 17.17 in the 100m hurdles (# 5 globally), 1.55m in the High Jump (#11 globally), and 5.17m in the Long Jump (#3 globally). Osland – already ranked #5 globally in the Pole Vault at 3.58m – vaulted 3.50m to round out an impressive day of track and field events.
Other notable performances from track include Terry Rowan’s 1:04.27 in the 300m Hurdles (M75), Robert McDaniel’s 18.17 in the 100m Hurdles (M55), and Larry Barnum’s 28.66 in the 200m (M70). Paul Rosati’s 13.89m in the Shot Put (M50), Daniel Lloyd’s 13.12m in the Shot Put (M60), Ken Kirschenman’s 48.06m in the Discus (M60), and Brian Lopez’s 51.29m in the Javelin (M30) highlighted an outstanding day of throwing. On the women’s side, Debra Hoffman’s 1:08.34 in the 400m (W55) and Amy Haapanen’s 60.19m in the Hammer Throw (W30) also reaffirmed their place in the global rankings with chart-topping performances.
Last but not least, total of 59 all-time Top 10 Pride Meet performances and 40 Pride Meet age group records were produced. Results and records are available on Pride Meet Results page.
Pride Meet 2016 photos are available, courtesy of Craig Wingate.