Riverside, Calif., July, 2001--

She’s the lady with a whippet, tan and fit, racing around La Sierra University with her dog, Sirocco.

Kimiko Nakatake of Japan and La Sierra's Leslie Martin won the international and national gold medals at the USA Track and Field National Masters Championships, women's 30-34 age division.

Leslie Martin, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at La Sierra University, started sprinting about a year ago at UC Riverside, where she’s an adjunct faculty member. She has a track coach and a high jump coach there, where she trains twice weekly. She’s a good runner, but a better high jumper.

Martin is a member of USA Track and Field, and a local club called the Highlander Masters. She competed and won at the Western Regionals and California State Games. Most recently, she competed in both sprinting and high jumping at the USA Track and Field National Masters Championship in Baton Rouge, July 25-28.

In an e-mail to friend and La Sierra colleague Gloria Hicinbothom, PhD, Martin wrote: "The good news is that I took fourth place in the 200m (sprints). The better news is that I took gold in the high jump! I couldn't believe it, myself! There was one woman who jumped higher than I did, but she wasn't a US citizen, so she got the international gold and I took the national. I'm the national high jump champion for women aged 30-34."

Martin says she’s not fast enough to score over her racing dog, but it appears that they could each give the other a run for the money. Sirocco tugs on the leash, and Martin’s right behind him.

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