Niels Laros of the Netherlands is a new face we may soon be reading a lot more about. Canadian Running recently published a short piece about him including some of times.
He won the European U18 championships in both the 1500 and 3000 meters, and his PR's are currently 3:39.46 1500 and 7:48.25 for 3000. Even better is his 800 1:46.30 which is better than Jakob Ingebrigtson's own PR at that distance.
Thanks to Richard Mach for bringing this to our attention.
Here is the link to the Canadian Running article.
Not to be outdone by youth, I've also recently learned about Harold Marioka, a Canadian of Japanese heritage who lives in British Columbia, Canada
.
Harold was born in an internment camp in Canada in 1943, making him 80 years old this year. After the war, the Canadians were not very forgiving and his family was held in the camp until April of 1949, approximately 1300 days after the surrender. When they got home they found that all their possessions and 10 acre farm had been sold and there was no compensation. A friend of the Marioka's helped them get started again with some land and they lived in a two room shack with no plumbing or electricity. There was no time to play sports as a kid, so Harold didn't attempt to get into a track meet until he was 29 in 1972. He saw he had a lot to learn after that first effort. He had some speed but couldn't hang on to the end of a 100 meter race, but the next year he came back and won the British Columbia provincial titles in 100 and 200 meters. He ran relays as well for his club and they again won provincial championships. At age 50 he had to pull out of the 200 because of some leg injury and so got into the 800 and ran 2:01.26. Not too shabby for a 50 year old. He also ran his age in seconds at age 51,
Today Harold is still active in the sport and has been the chief statistician for Masters' events in British Columbia.
The following information was culled from the article What Didn't Kill Harold Only Made Him Stronger which appeared in athleticsillustrated.com written by Christopher Kelsall.
Here is the link to that article: https://athleticsillustrated.com/what-didnt-kill-harold-only-made-him-stronger-100-track-records-later/
The Harold Morioka story was supplied to us by Bruce Kritzler.
2 comments:
Wonderful story on Harold Morioka. The link to the article is a MUST READ. What happened to his family in WWII is terrible and shameful. But he has lived a remarkable life. And his Track times are mindboggling. And the other B.C. Masters runners are great too.
Morioka's 2:01 88 the first time he runs an 800 at age 50 is amazing. And he had not even planned to run an 800. Then his 51 400 at age 51. And his truly extraordinary 54 400 at 60.
Is that photo of him with the trophy recent? it can't be, can it? No 80 year old can look like that. I want to cry with envy - and admiration.
Geoff Pietsch Gainesville FL
These guys seem to coming out of the woodwork nowadays. Looks like a great future as we head into the pre-WCs and 24 Olympic Games. Thanks for posting. The coaching group that meets once a month here in Orange County believes that the new shoe tech and tracks are worth 1.5 to 2.0 seconds per lap which contributes to the amazing performances we see in very young athletes. Certainly not the only factor, but when I see photos and video of the dirt tracks that I ran on, even the top tracks like Mt. SAC, the way the track was chewed up after multiple competitions I can believe that 1-2 seconds is not out of the question.
Post a Comment