Boulder Road Runners M70+ Team Wins National 5 km Title in Atlanta; Sayre and Katz podium

Colorado Results Scoreboard

On Saturday (24-Feb) seven (7) athletes from Colorado competed in the USATF Masters 5 km Championships in Atlanta. The event was held in conjunction with the Publix Atlanta Marathon Weekend. A total of 216 athletes from 27 states competed in the event that was conducted on a challenging course through the streets of downtown Atlanta. It was the third event in the 2024 USATF Masters Grand Prix.

The headline story of the day for the Coloradans was the Boulder Road Runners men's 70+ team winning the team title against an always strong hometown Atlanta Track Club.  The team's cumulative team time of 1:07:20 was an impressive 2 minutes and 47 seconds better than the Atlanta squad.  The Ann Arbor Track Club from Michigan finished third just 22 seconds behind Atlanta.  

Doug Bell, 73, of Greeley led the team's effort as he crossed the line in 21:06; finishing fourth in the men's 70-74 division. Bruce Kirschner, 70, of Louisville was the second scorer for the team running 22:53 as he placed ninth in the 70-74 division. Richard Katz, 75, of Boulder ran 23:21 to round out the team scoring. Katz, who finished second in the men's 75-79 division, was one of two Coloradans to earn visits to the award the podium for finishing in the top three in their age division.  Jan Frisby, 79, of Grand Junction finished fourth in the 75-79 division running 25:01. This was the third win for the team in the 2024 USATF Grand Prix as they lead the series with a perfect 300 points. Previously they won the USATF Club Cross Country Championships held in December in Tallahassee, FL and the USATF Cross Country Championships held last month in Richmond, VA.

Roger Sayre, 66, of Golden ran an impressive 18:24 to finish second in the men's 65-69 division. Sayre, the 2023 USATF Colorado Athlete of the Year and 2023 USATF Grand Prix champion, only trailed John Glidewell of Atlanta who ran 17:53. Sayre's (age graded) performance score of 90.94 was the third best among the 132 men that competed. Scores of over 90 are considered to be world class performances.

In the men's 55-59 division, Randy Paul, 59, of Colorado Springs finished 11th in a time of 19:14.

In the women's championship Michele Yates, 41, of Conifer finished fourth in the 40-44 division running 17:57. She was just five seconds shy of a podium finish. The next day she was the overall winner of the Atlanta Marathon running 3:01:43.

The next USATF masters road running championship will be the 10 km Championships on April 28 in Dedham, MA.