On August 27-28, the Greyhounds Masters Club hosted their second Multi-Events Meet, this year at the South Surrey Athletic facility. The meet included a mens decathlon (6 athletes), womens heptathlon (7 athletes) and a throws pentathlon for both men (7 athletes) and women (10 athletes). On Sunday afternoon, a few individual track events and relays were added to the schedule. Added were the Mile racewalk, 100m, 400m, 1500m, 4x100m and 4x800m relays. The individual pole vault which was part of the BC Masters Championships, was included into the schedule immediately after the conclusion of the decathlon pole vault.

The weather was perfect, sunny with the temperature around 25 degrees both days. Christopher Kelsall (managing editor of Athletics Illustrated) as he was for the BC Masters Championships held two weeks earlier, was the announcer for this meet.

Although there were only limited events, the athletes had excellent results, setting 25 BC, 10 Canadian and 3 world records (another world record was tied).

Christa Bortignon might be diminutive but her results are enormous. The 85-year old athlete long jumped 3.03m, breaking her world record of 3.01m which she set earlier this year. She also set a new world standard in the W85 heptathlon with an excellent score of 5807 points. Christa also tied the listed world record in the W85 high jump with a leap of 0.95m.

The M75 4x800m relay team of Mark Stewart, Terry Riggins, Fred Pawluk and Pat Harton broke the listed world record by almost a full minute. The team completed 3200m in 12: 27.64, breaking the old record of 13:22.67 set by a team from Australia.

Another 4x800m relay team, the W60 team of Juliette Christie, Patti Rogers, Donna Dixon and Janette Wood broke the Canadian W60 record by over a minute. Their time of 11:55.73 shattered the old record of 13:12.94 which had stood since 2011.

In addition to Christa, three more athletes broke Canadian records in the combined events. Reidar Zapf-Gilje scored 7691 points in the M70 decathlon, smashing CMA Hall of Famer Ian Hume's Canadian record of 5194 points. Tom Ukonmaanaho, broke his own M75 decathlon record with a very good score of 6089 points. Cindy O'Brien Hugh who was selected as the 2021 CMA Combined-Events Athlete of the Year, broke her own W60 heptathlon record scoring 4779 points. Reidar, Tom and Cindy also broke one BC record – Reidar in the high jump (1.39m), Tom (18.08) and Cindy (14.77) in the 80m hurdles.

Harnek Toor broke two Canadian records. Harnek broke the M75 throws pentathlon record (3962 points) and bettered his own record in the Weight throw (15.74m). He also added a BC record in the hammer throw (37.56m). Graham Morfitt who already holds the Canadian javelin record in the M35, M45 and M50 age groups, broke the M55 record with a throw of 51.11m. Graham has a pending record of 51.12m from earlier this year. Graham also broke the BC throws pentathlon record (3539 points).

The relay team of Brian Carnate, Marvin Johnson, Sam Walker and Andrew Day lowered the BC M45 4x100m record by 3.56 seconds (47.54). Two BC records were broken in the womens 1500m – Carol Montgomery broke the W55 record (5:18.40) and Juliette Christie broke the W60 record for the third time this year, this time in 5:39.39. Kathy Brand broke two BC W80 records, the weight throw (9.63m) and the throws pentathlon (3934 points). Christine Dalgleish broke the W55 weight throw record (9.74m).

Gabriella Moro broke the W75 discus record (23.44m). Two more BC records were broken in the womens heptathlon – Marina Khrisanova W40 (2344 points) and Olesea Chitul W45 (2748 points). Two new BC standards were set in the Mile race walk, by W35 Karin Adande (11:28.69) and by W70 Bertha Johnson (12:40.89)

Thank you to those who volunteered their time to make our Greyhounds Multi-Events Meet possible. Thank you to the Ocean Athletics Club for their assistance. Thank you to Steve McPherson and his father, Dr Ron MacPherson, for acting as our first-aid attendants. Special thank you to the many officials and volunteers for their continued dedication to track and field.