1991 World Masters Athletics Championships is the ninth in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships (called World Veterans Championships at the time) that took place in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

from 18 to 28 July 1991. The main venue was Paavo Nurmi Stadium. Satellite tracks were located in nearby

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Raisio Raisio (; sv, Reso) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in south-western Finland and an important junction of major roads. The town has a population of () and is located in the region of So ...

and

Kaarina Kaarina (; sv, S:t Karins, i.e. " Saint Catherine's") is a small town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southwest Finland region and is a neighbouring town of Turku, which is the capital of Southwest Finland, therefore Kaarina ...

. This edition of

masters athletics Masters athletics is a class of the sport of athletics for athletes of over 35 years of age. The events include track and field, road running and cross country running. Competitors are bracketed into five-year age groups (which promotes fair comp ...

Championships had a minimum age limit of 35 years for women and 40 years for men. The governing body of this series is World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA). WAVA was formed during meeting at the inaugural edition of this series at

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1975, then officially founded during the second edition in 1977, then renamed as

World Masters Athletics World Masters Athletics (WMA) is the worldwide governing body for the sport of masters athletics – which includes track and field, cross country, and road running events – as participated by people over 35 years of age. As the need became ap ...

(WMA) at the

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Championships in 2001. This Championships was organized by WAVA in coordination with a Local Organising Committee (LOC) headed by Sten-Olof Hansen. In addition to a full range of track and field events, non-stadia events included 10K Cross Country, 10K Race Walk (women), 20K Race Walk (men), and

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

South Africa

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

had been expelled by the

International Amateur Athletic Federation World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

(IAAF) in 1976 due to the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

policy of the South African government at that time. The participation of South African athletes in WAVA competitions had been at odds with the IAAF, specifically due to the 1977 WAVA constitution which had stated that As a compromise, South Africans often competed at these Championships under the flag of other nations before

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

. During General Assembly at the 1987 Championships, WAVA delegates approved a motion to amend the WAVA constitution and exclude countries whose national federation is suspended by the IAAF. Thus South African athletes were officially banned from these Championships, and would not be welcomed back until the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

edition in Miyazaki, after the abolition of apartheid and the readmittance of South Africa into IAAF in 1992.

Results

Past Championships results are archived at WMA. Additional archives are available from Museum of Masters Track & Field as a pdf book, in pdf newsletters from National Masters News, and as a searchable pdf extracted from the September 1991 newsletter. Several masters world records were set at this Championships. World records for 1991 are from the lists of World Records in the Museum of Masters Track & Field pdf book, supplemented by another list of World Records in the September 1991 newsletter. The winners from each of the age-group 100m races were invited to participate in a "Special WAVA Age-Graded 100", where runners were given distance handicaps based on WAVA age-graded tables. The winners were M55 Hugo Hartenstein () in 10.55 and W40 Geraldine Otto () in 11.22. The blind sprinter

Fritz Assmy Fritz Assmy (11 June 1915 – 11 June 2000) was a blind Chinese-German masters athletics sprinter. He has set numerous masters world records in sprint events from 100 to 400 meters. Born in Hankou, China to Paul Assmy and Shun King Liu, he migr ...

, now in the M75 class and guided by his grandson, set new WRs in the 100m and 200m sprints, running in his assigned lane 8 to avoid getting in the way of other competitors. He had been guided by his son-in-law in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

and

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

, and by his son in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

and

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. This was his last WAVA Championships; he would not compete in

and would pass away in 2000.

Women

Men

References

{{World Masters Athletics Championships

World Masters Athletics Championships The World Masters Athletics Championships are the biennial championships for masters athletics events held under the auspices of World Masters Athletics, formerly called the World Association of Veteran Athletes, for athletes 35 years of age or o ...

International athletics competitions hosted by Finland

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

Masters athletics (track and field) records