When you haven’t done an activity you’re good at for a while, it can sometimes take time to shake off the rust (hence the popular racing term rustbuster). But for Melbourne’s Zac Ashkanasy, that wasn’t the case.
Until last week, it had been more than two decades since Ashkanasy last lined up for an 800m on the track. Yet, he made his return in the loudest way possible, setting a new men’s 50+ 800m world record.
Ashkanasy, who was the oldest runner in his heat at the Victoria Milers Club by about 27 years, won the race outright with a jaw-dropping time of 1:56.33, which cut 1.5 seconds off the previous age-group world record of 1:57.98.
Running a sub-two-minute 800m is an impressive benchmark for many sub-elite men and professional women, let alone a 53-year-old consultant from Australia.
With this performance, Ashkanasy now holds both men’s 50+ world records in the 800m and 1,500m. Last year, he lined up at Melbourne’s Box Hill Classic and ran an incredible 3:57.71 in the 1,500m to break that record as well.
Ashkanasy didn’t just come to running out of nowhere. He competed at the sub-elite level in his mid-to-late 20s, clocking lifetime personal bests of 1:49.66 for 800m and 3:43.94 for 1,500m. His latest achievement serves as a reminder that, as long as you stay active and healthy, talent and speed don’t really disappear.