Posted: July 26, 2005

Athletics: Hawaii Legend Duncan Macdonald, 1976 Olympian, Returns to the Track at the USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships

Hawaii Legend Duncan Macdonald, 1976 Olympian, Returns to the Track 7:30 a.m. Thursday Aug. 4; Entries include 46 from Hawaii

Former Olympians Dr. Duncan Macdonald (Honolulu), Trish Porter (Albuquerque, N.M.), Val Barnwell (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Anna Wlodarczyk (Orange, Calif.) will be among the competitors at the 2005 USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships Aug. 4-7 (Thur.-Sun.) on the world's only "Rainbow" track at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. The event will see competition by 800 of the world and nation's best masters track & field athletes, aged 30 to 95 years old.

Track events (running and race walk) range from 100 meters to 10K, while field events include the full range of jumps and throws. "World and personal records will be broken on this great track. More than 100 USATF-certified officials will be working the meet," said Meet Director Mark Zeug, who lives in Honolulu. "There are athletes from Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Japan, Romania, Tasmania, the United Kingdom and the United States," Zeug said.

Dr. Macdonald, 56, Oahu's Kailua High cross country and track standout who grew up just ten miles from the Rainbow track in Honolulu, is generally regarded as the greatest runner ever produced in Hawaii. Now an anesthesiologist and cross country and track coach at Honolulu's Punahou High School, Macdonald in 1976 became the first runner to break legend Steve Prefontaine's American 5,000-meter record. He competed in the 5,000 at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and will run the 5,000 at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 4 in his first competitive return to the track since recovering from an Achilles injury.

Porter is one of two women in the world to have jumped 1.76 meters (5' 9 1/4") after reaching the age of 40.

Barnwell, competing in the men's 45-49 division, represented Guyana in two Olympiads. He brought home gold in the 100 in the last two masters world championships.

Polish Olympian Anna Wlodarczyk, 54, finished fourth (a controversial decision by a Soviet judge blocked her from medaling) in the long jump in the 1980 Moscow Games. Now coach at Chapman University in California, she won the long jump, triple jump, 80m hurdles, high jump, and heptathlon in the 2003 World Championships.

The 2005 Championships boast world-class athletes spanning all ages, locations and walks of life: veterinarian Dr. Jim Stookey, Potomac Valley, DC Track Club world-record hurdler for men 70-74 from Dickerson, Md.; California district attorney Rita Hanscom of San Diego notched 3rd-fastest 200 and 2nd-fastest 60 among women in 2005 Indoors; Mississippi oilman Emil Pawlik, world-record decathlete 65-69.

-- Trent Lane, 95, the oldest entrant at press time, is a farmer who had enjoyed a 75-year track and field hiatus, but stayed in shape by working on his farm in Baker, LA, a regimen that has lifted him to age-group records in the shotput, javelin and discus at the National Senior Games.

Other star competitors include Kathy Martin, from Northport, N.Y., the premier 50 plus woman in the U.S. in the middle distances, Running Times number one woman worldwide in the 50-54 age group for 2004 and recipient of the Ben Gay award in 2004 for best masters track athlete in U.S.; Nadine O'Connor, emerging superstar from Del Mar, California who may become the first American woman aged 60 plus to break 29 seconds in the 200 dash; David Ashford, 1981 California state high school champ in the hurdles at 13.67 who 22 years later set the world record of 13.73 in the same race for the 40-44 age group; and Aaron Thigpen, the prime candidate to break the venerable American mark (10.87) in the men's 40-44 100m.

46 entrants are from Hawaii.

A schedule and entries list are available at the web site of the 2005 Championships, USATF.org or www.hawaiichamps.com.