WEST Vancouver super seniors Olga Kotelko and Christa Bortignon both raked in the hardware at the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships held July 6-17 in Sacramento, Calif.
The 92-year-old Kotelko, now a worldwide phenom for her continued athletic prowess as a nonagenarian, scored 11 gold medals in 11 events, winning the 100 m, 200 m, high jump, long jump, triple jump, shot put, discus, hammer throw, javelin, weight throw and weight pentathlon in the 90-plus category. While many of Kotelko's events featured only her as a competitor, others involved challengers who were bested by the multiple world record holder.
Bortignon, a 74-year-old who took up track and field at the age of 72 after reading a North Shore News article about Kotelko, scored five medals of her own and three Canadian age-group records in the 70-plus division.
Bortignon took home gold in the triple jump, silver in the 100 m and heptathlon and bronze in the long jump and 400 m. Her 100-m time of 16.57 was a Canadian age-group record and placed her second amongst 20 competitors in the race.
Her other national records came in the 80-m hurdles - raced as part of the heptathlon - and the heptathlon itself.
Bortignon now holds 12 Canadian agegroup records, including 11 set during the 2011 season.
