At 38, Bill Collins Still Hits Stride in Sprints

Bill Collins would have loved to see his buddies Lee Evans, Willie Davenport and Rod Milburn catch his act this weekend at the TAC/USA National Masters Track and Field Championships.

The three legends were scheduled to appear in the meet at San Diego State, but financial problems and business commitments kept them away. Too bad . . . they missed quite a show.

Running with the ease and fluidity of an Evans or Carl Lewis, Collins, a 38-year-old former TCU star and world-record holder, dusted his nearest competitor by 10 yards in the men’s 35-39 200-meter dash.

Collins’ 21.84 was well off the 11-year-old age-group record of 20.8 set by Delano Meriweather, but Collins said Meriweather’s hand-timed mark may never be broken; hand-timing is generally about two-tenths of a second faster than the electrical timing now used in these meets.

“It might be tough, but you never know,” Collins said.

The way Collins is running, though, he might break it next week in Eugene, Ore. at the World Masters Championships. Except for a smattering of gray hairs on his head, you’d never know he is 38.

“I’m just training well right now,” said Collins, who won the 100 meters Friday in 10.92. “It seems like I have a better knowledge of the sport.”

His name was never more prominent than in 1977, when he was the No. 1-ranked 200 runner in the world. That year in Dusseldorf, West Germany, Collins, Steve Williams, Cliff Wiley and Steve Riddick set the 4 x 100-meter world record at 38.03. It stood for seven years until Lewis, Calvin Smith, Ron Brown and Sam Graddy broke it in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

In two years, Collins will be attempting to break Stan Whitley’s 40-44 200-meter age group record of 22.20. Collins eventually wants to take aim at the 55-and-over records of Payton Jordan.

“Like Payton said: His records were made to be broken,” Collins said.

Today at 1:30 p.m. in the handicapped 100-meter dash, Collins will get a glimpse of what it’s like to run against Jordan, who held a world 100-yard record for 27 years. The 72-year-old Jordan will probably be placed about 12-14 meters ahead of him. The other competitors will be placed a various starting points depending on their age.

“That will be the ultimate test,” said Collins, who runs a marketing firm and recording company in Houston. “I think I’ll have to run a 10.5 or 10.6 to catch them. I’d like to catch them at 70 (meters), because I tend to fade in the last 30.”

Even if he doesn’t win the $250 first-prize money, Collins will go back to Houston a happy man.

“You’re running against legends--whatever place you finish you should be satisfied,” Collins said.

One man reaching legendary status in a hurry is Derek Turnbull, the world-record-holding sheepherder from New Zealand. He won the men’s 60-64 5,000 meters in 16:46.37 early Saturday, then came back with his second world mark of the meet in the evening, winning the 1,500 meters in 4:29.11 to better the 4:30.0 set by John Gilmour in 1979. Friday in the 800 heats, Turnbull also set a world record.

Senator Alan Cranston would have been more satisfied with his place if he had been able to run. Cranston, 75, a frequent participant in Masters meets, was slated to run in the 100 and 200 meters, but a pulled tooth kept him out of the competition.

“What’s really aggravating is I’d be in the bottom of the class this year (in the 75-79 age group),” he said. “I’d have a good chance of winning.”

Rachel Bush, wife of Green Bay Packers center Blair Bush, won her second race of the weekend by taking the 200 meters in the 30-34 age category. Friday she won the 100.

“It’s something I always wanted to do--take a double,” said Bush, who competed collegiately at Seattle Pacific.