One of many best Canadian masters runners in historical past, Karla Del Grande kicked off her 2025 season with one other nationwide masters file. The 71-year-old sprinter from Toronto set a brand new girls’s 70-74 Canadian file 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, lined 50 metres in 7.87 seconds. This achievement makes her the primary Canadian lady over 70 to interrupt eight seconds within the masters dash distance, typically raced on indoor tracks. The earlier file was held by Saskatchewan’s Carol Lafayette-Boyd, now among the best masters sprinters on this planet over 80.
Final 12 months on the World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, Del Grande earned the title of the quickest lady over 70 on this planet by operating a W70+ 100m world file of 14.70 seconds, profitable 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 discipline in 2002 on the age of 49 and has since set quite a few Canadian and world data in numerous dash occasions throughout indoor and out of doors 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 file 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 file of 6.88 seconds. Each Suchowiecka and Del Grande practice collectively beneath masters coach Kerry Smith.
In a latest interview with Canadian Working, Del Grande stated she has no plans of slowing down and is impressed by her objective of sharing her ardour for the game and inspiring different older girls to take up operating and monitor and discipline.