Belgium’s Emiel Pauwels turned 95 in late December, but will seek no more world titles and records. He plans to die next week. Belgian press reports say he suffers from stomach and colon cancer, which prevented him from keeping his
The Bendigo Advertiser is doing a bang-up job covering the just-begun Oceania Masters Athletic Championships in southeast Australia. The official site still lacks results, but the local paper reports some Day 1 dec scores, including 2326 points for Rad Leovic,
New Year’s Day brought a revelatory story about Joy Upshaw, the W50 multi-eventer and record-holder in jumps and hurdles. A quarter-century after starring for Acalanes High School in the East Bay town of Lafayette, California, Joy is coaching there. “So
Drew Morano is a sprints coach on the staff of Colorado University coaching legend Mark Wetmore. Heather Burroughs is another Wetmore assistant in Boulder. In a seeking-secrets column by Mike Sandrock, we get some interesting ideas on how to train.
Former sub-47 quarter-miler Dan Radiff has been to eight world meets, including the 1993 biggie in Japan. At Porto Alegre, the M60 hurdler hoped for more than his silver medal on the American 4×4 team. But he pulled a hammie
Age Is No Barrier, a colorful history of masters track in Australia by Bryan Thomas, is a book published several years ago. It’s now online as a 154-page PDF with lots of photos. Bryan draws on earlier works by Jack
Bruce Grierson, an exceptional writer based in Vancouver, first contacted me about Canadian masters legend Olga Kotelko in 2010. The resultant New York Times Magazine piece was titled “The Incredible Flying Nonagenarian.” But Bruce didn’t stop there. He began research
I once asked a multi-eventer friend of mine why he did masters track. He said: “Because I enjoy it.” But I was too shy to ask why. For me, the enjoyment comes via self-discovery. I tell people that masters track
The biggest early meet of 2014 isn’t in Budapest or Boston (corrected from earlier reference to Landover). It’s in Bendingo, Victoria — a town not far from Melbourne in southeast Australia. Bendigo will host the biennial Oceania Masters Athletics Championships.
Several weeks ago, a Bulgarian reader sent me a link to a 1996 article about a Norwegian marathoner named Tor Aanensen. The Bulgarian — Ventseslav “Ventsi” Ivanov — wrote me: “[Tor] trained patiently for 25 years till he became a
Hammer legend Ed Burke won’t be carrying the American flag at the 2016 Rio Games, but his appetite for throwing is still Olympian at age 73. In a wonderful three-part interview with hammer guru Martin Bissinger, Ed remarks: “I must
When Germany’s Wolfgang “Wolfie” Ritte jumped an M60 world outdoor record of 4.32 meters (14-2) in May, it seemed only a matter of time before the indoor WR fell as well. On Dec. 15, in his first indoor meet of
