Friday, August 02, 2013

S & S: Schoffman and Sagedahl Master Multi Taskers

Jim Schoffman
By Tom Langenfeld
Jim Schoffman showed much of the same versatility that has made Sherwood Sagedahl one of the wonders of Masters track.  Jim ran ten races in three days at the National Senior Games, sometimes with minimal recovery time between events—and the quality of his performances matched the quantity.
On Saturday:  preliminary trials in the 100m, 200m and 800m.  He won his heat in all three.
On Sunday:  preliminary trials in the 400m and 50m (second in both), finals in the 800m (first) and 100 (fourth).  His 800m time of 2:20.67 broke the 13-year-old Minnesota M60 age group record of 2:20.77.  His 100m time was well under the 17-year-old Minnesota record of 13.48.
On Monday:  finals in the 50m, 200m and 400m.  He was fourth in the 50 with 7.17, third in the 200 with 26.80 and second in the 400 in 57.35.  His 200 time of 26.80 bettered the listed Minnesota record by more than a second.  His 400 time of 57.35 cut more than 4 seconds off the listed record and more than than a second off his own pending record of 58.78 set earlier this year.  It was also superior to the winning 400m time at this year’s USATF nationals.  (Jim’s 50m time might have broken a state record, too,  if there had been a record to break.  The Minnesota masters record compilation doesn’t include the 50.)

I don’t believe any other athlete has ever done so well in so many running events at the National Senior Games – except another Minnesotan, Sherwood Sagedahl, whose unprecedented series of performances at Stanford four years ago was one of the major stories of that competition.  Sherwood also ran ten races in three days, competing in every track race on the program, 100m through 1500m, and medaling in them all – two gold, two silver and a bronze.

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