Competing as the oldest woman in her age group, San Diego’s Rita Hanscom won a silver medal Tuesday on the opening day of the World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Hanscom, only months away from turning 60, scored 4,023 points in the pentathlon — behind only Spain’s Maria Rosa Escribano, 55, and among the youngest in the 55-59 age group. On Wednesday, she added a silver in the pole vault, clearing 2.40 meters (7-foot-10 1/2).
A deputy state attorney general, Hanscom won the first event — the 60-meter hurdles — in 10.40 seconds and followed with 1.33 meters (4-foot-4 1/4) in the high jump, 8.98 meters (29-5 1/2) in the 6.6-pound shot put, 4.26 meters (13-11 3/4) in the long jump and 3:01.83 in the day’s final event, the 800-meter run.
Hanscom is a former San Diego County deputy district attorney who is married to retired San Diego Superior Court Judge Richard Hanscom.
A many-times national champion, she holds a world age-group record in the seven-event, two-day outdoor heptathlon — set at the 2009 world masters outdoor championships in Lahti, Finland. For that achievement and others, she was named World’s Best Female Athlete of the Year, accepting her award in Monte Carlo at the IAAF Gala.
Hanscom also is competing in the individual high jump and long jump at the Budapest meet, which runs through March 30. Results are being posted here.
James Chinn of Del Mar, an architect, is the only other San Diego County athlete entered at the world indoor track and field meet.
A former outdoor world 400-meter champion in masters competition, Chinn is entered in the 200, 400 and 4×200 relay in his 55-59 age group as part of an American squad numbering about 140 athletes from age 35 to nearly 90.
