New Masters World Record Set!
Ponce de Leon traveled to St. Augustine, Florida in his search for the Fountain of Youth, but never found it. Perhaps he would have succeeded if he had continued 60 miles further west to Gainesville, where Ukraine's Tatyana Pozdnyakova is defying age with a series of incredible running performances.

At age 48, Pozdnyakova (photo left, rear) shattered the women's 8K masters world record March 15 at the 31st annual Shamrock Sportsfest 8K in Virginia Beach. The previous world record was 26:19 by Ruth Wysocki of the U.S. on July 12, 1997 at Newport Beach, Calif.

Pozdnyakova ran a 25:56 to better the world record by 23 seconds, and the Shamrock Masters 8K race record (26:34 by Lyubov Kremleva in 2002) by 38 seconds. Pozdnyakova now works as an agent for other runners, and brought Kremleva, the defending champion, with her. Kremleva, also from Gainesville, was herself under both the previous race and world records with a 26:15.

In a race that allowed "double dipping," Pozdnyakova won $1,000 for first Master, $400 for third overall (behind Gladys Asiba's 25:47 and Breeda Dennehy's 25:55 (photo above, front)), and a Masters world-record bonus of $500. Kremleva received $600 for second Master and $300 for fourth overall.

Two weeks before Shamrock (March 2), Pozdnyakova was the overall winner of the Los Angeles Marathon in 2:29:40. She had her 48th birthday two days later, then was first Master at the nearby Gate River 15K in Jacksonville March 8. Last October Pozdnyakova was first overal at the Ocean State Marathon in 2:29:00, a world- best time for women 45-49. Most runners concentrate on the first two to four years after turning 40 to run their best times as a Master. For Pozdnyakova to still be breaking world Masters records at age 48 is truly remarkable.

With her women's world Masters record, the Shamrock Masters 8K now holds both Masters world records on the fast and totally flat course along the Atlantic Ocean. In the 1992 Shamrock Masters 8K, Nick Rose of Great Britain set the still-current men's Masters 8K record of 23:13. The weather for this year's race was ideal, with little or no wind, sunny skies, and temperatures in the 40s (rising to the low 50s for the marathon).

While Pozdnyakova and the women took advantage of one of the best weather years ever at Shamrock, the open men (with a plethora of talented international runners) wasted an opportunity to go for the race and world-record bonuses offered this year by Shamrock. The opening mile was a pedestrian 4:55, with the women's lead pack only eight seconds behind. Things got fast after that first mile, but the damage was done. Covering the final 3.97 miles in 17:32, Kenya's Linus Maiyo had yet another ferocious duel to the finish (he lost a photo finish to South Africa's Hendrick Ramaala at the Feb. 23 World's Best 10K in Puerto Rico, both timed in 28:16), but Maiyo won a physical sprint to Shamrock's outdoor finish line adjacent to the Virginia Beach Pavilion. Maiyo had a 22:27, just 18 seconds off the Shamrock record (22:09)and 24 seconds off the world record (22:03).

Kenya's Francis Komu was second in 22:28, followed by Kenya's Moses Macharia Mwangi (22:41), Australia's Andrew Letherby (22:55) and Kenya's Patrick Nthiwa (23:01). If only that talented field had gone out in 4:30 (rather than 4:55), more history could have been made.

The Masters men's race was also very close, as Kenya's Andrew Masai, 43, outkicked Eddy Hellebuyck, 42, of Albuquerque, 23:54 to 23:57, with Jon Sinclair a distant third (25:12).

The marathon was won by Kenya's Fred Getange (2:25:55 for $1,000) over debut marathoner Keith Kimmons, a senior at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (2:26:40 for $600). Masters marathon winner Dai Roberts, 41, of Virginia Beach, was third overall (2:28:11), ahead of two other local runners--Michael Mann of Hampton (a PR 2:28:28) and John Piggott of Williamsburg (a PR 2:30:14), all three working together the entire race.

The women's surprise marathon winner, Stacie Alboucrek, 35, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., was not among the seeded runners, as she had just intended to run 18-20 miles as a training race for another marathon three weeks later. But the weather was perfect, she felt great, and kept going to a 2:39:49 win, good for the $1,000 first-place money, and an additional U.S. Olympic Trials "A" standard (sub-2:40:00) bonus of $250. Runner-up Susan Graham Gray of Hagerstown, Md. was on pace for a "B" standard qualifier (2:48), but cramps midway had her struggling in to a runner-up 2:57:00, just ahead of Heather Davis of Raleigh, N.C. (2:57:27) and Jill Knesh of Homer City, Pa. (2:57:33).

The women's masters division winner was Leisa Engle, 44, of Virginia Beach (3:06:07).

See the Shamrock Marathon results for:
Men

Women