One of many biggest Canadian masters runners in historical past, Karla Del Grande kicked off her 2025 season with one other nationwide masters report. The 71-year-old sprinter from Toronto set a brand new ladies’s 70-74 Canadian report within the 50-metre occasion at Sunday’s Athletics Ontario Winter Mini-Meet at York College.
Del Grande, who already holds dozens of Canadian age group dash data indoors and open air, coated 50 metres in 7.87 seconds. This achievement makes her the primary Canadian girl over 70 to interrupt eight seconds within the masters dash distance, typically raced on indoor tracks. The earlier report was held by Saskatchewan’s Carol Lafayette-Boyd, now probably the greatest masters sprinters on the earth over 80.
Final yr on the World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, Del Grande earned the title of the quickest girl over 70 on the earth by operating a W70+ 100m world report of 14.70 seconds, successful gold for Canada.
Del Grande appears to be getting quicker with age, as she’s going to have fun her 72nd birthday on March 27. She started monitor and area in 2002 on the age of 49 and has since set quite a few Canadian and world data in varied dash occasions throughout indoor and outside competitions. In 2020, she was honoured because the World Masters Athlete of the Decade.
Del Grande wasn’t the one sprinter to set a Canadian report on the masters Mini Meet. Paula Suchowiecka of Mississauga, Ont., sprinted to a time of 6.54 seconds over the identical distance, shattering the ladies’s 35+ Canadian 50-meter report of 6.88 seconds. Each Suchowiecka and Del Grande practice collectively below masters coach Kerry Smith.
In a current interview with Canadian Operating, Del Grande stated she has no plans of slowing down and is impressed by her aim of sharing her ardour for the game and inspiring different older ladies to take up operating and monitor and area.