The 100-yard dash has all but disappeared from the planet. Vanity has no place in masters records. Masters runner Hal Higdon, as honest as he is fast, wrote a revealing column in the April 1997 National Masters News. Those marks were never recognized. Fortunately, Steve Plasencia has shattered the M40 record, erasing all asterisks.
Masters records are sacred.
They represent the pinnacle of performance and log the greatest age-group achievements of our time. Any bureaucracy that gets in the way of recognizing the truly best marks of our time must be swept away. Waivers should be allowed to admit elite masters' marks into this pantheon without athletes having to make application via a cumbersome and outdated process. Meet directors should be held accountable for submitting all marks with wind readings, auto-time records, etc. IAAF procedures should be a model.