Scot breaks M65 800m world record held by Canadian for nearly 30 years

A world record held by a legendary Canadian runner for almost 30 years was toppled on a track in Italy on Friday, as Britain’s Paul Forbes ran 2:13.74 in the 800m at the European Masters Athletics Championships for a new outdoor world’s best in the M65 division.

Forbes shaved just more than half a second off the longstanding record time of 2:14:33 set by Toronto’s Earl Fee in Buffalo in 1995. With his performance in Italy, the 67-year-old Forbes also sliced 0.93 seconds off his own British M65 800m record, which he set last year at the World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships in Tampere, Finland.

As he did in Tampere, Forbes topped the podium in both the M65 800m and 1,500m events in Pescara, Italy, running the latter in 4:44:40 on Sept. 23. That effort was only five seconds off the 4:39.15 British M65 outdoor 1500m record he set at a meet in Glasgow in July.

The European Masters Athletic Championships, which ran from Sept. 21 to Oct. 1, featured thousands of athletes from across the continent.

Although Fee’s 800m decades-long record has fallen, the celebrated Canadian runner’s name still features prominently in the list of world masters records. Fee, who is originally from Saskatchewan, still holds the 800m world masters records in the M70 (2:20.52) and the M90 (3:42.52) age groups. According to the latest list of records published from World Masters Athletics, the Canadian still holds nearly a dozen indoor and outdoor masters world records in events ranging from the 200m hurdles to the mile.

In 2019, Fee broke his 60th world record by running 1:29.15 in the M90 400m, a feat he accomplished in oppressive 33 C heat at the North, Central American and Caribbean Masters Athletics (NCCMA) meet at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium. That same year, Fee and fellow Canadian runner Karla Del Grande were named the overall Athletes of the Year by the NCCMA.

What M90 phenom Earl Fee eats in a day

Fee was inducted into the Canadian Masters Association Hall of Fame in 2009. The association’s award for the Canadian Masters Athlete of the Year in track is named in his honour.