Justin Gatlin is officially a geezer (according to my rule for tracksters over 35). But he’s no retiree. In fact, the Bolt-beating world sprint champ told Team USA that he’s looking to race in Tokyo — at the 2020 Olympics. “I started my career with an Olympic gold medal (in 2004), I’d love to finish my career with a gold medal in 2020,” Justin said. Carl Lewis said he endorses Justin for the title of “world’s fastest man,” saying: “The one who won it last is the fastest, and that’s Justin. You can’t go back to two times ago.” Justin said: “My coach (Dennis Mitchell) wants me to specialize in the 100 meters for the next three years. I want faster times; I want to break the American record (of 9.69 seconds, now held by Tyson Gay). My focus is on running fast, not running a lot of races but maybe running smaller races.” Hey, we know some smaller races with USATF sanction!
Justin reacts to winning IAAF London world gold in 9.92, beating the Boltman.
As we await Meb Keflezighi’s final marathon (at age 42 Sunday in New York City), let’s pause to admire the British track magazine for again uttering the M-word. This time, masters are part of the year-end honors list. Athletics Weekly wants to know your pick for top over-40 athlete in Britain. (My stuff-the-ballot-box votes are for Tony Whiteman.) But back to Meb, a fellow San Diegan who’ve I crossed paths with many times. He has an entourage, but he stays grounded and humble. I hope he stays in the game and considers a return to a form of low-pressure track (hint, hint) where nobody judges you. (We all have issues.)
I demand USATFMasters take down this picture of me immediately!
USATFmasters.org, our funky but fact-filled resource site, announces: “Bid for a National Masters Track and Field Meet!” The memo says: “Interested in bringing a Masters T&F meet to your area? Want to build Masters T&F in your area? Want to help your local economy? Want to gain experience working with USATF to put on a national caliber meet? Consider having the BIGGEST Masters T&F Meet in the United States in your town!!” (But go easy on the exclaims, guys. Act like this isn’t your first rodeo.) The text continues: “The link below points to Open Bids at USATF for National Meets. Take a look at the Masters Track and Field meets and start talking it up! Contact your local USATF association, the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations that can turn this dream into reality!” It’s a good start, but the real boots on the ground are the masters T&F officers of the four-dozen USATF associations. They should be the ones recruited for “talking it up.” See their names here. (And write them if you think they’re foot-dragging on seeking a national masters meet.) Meantime, keep your eye on the USATF annual meeting Documents Library. Revealing stuff shows up.
Chuck Phillips, aka “Dr. Track,” was an early innovator on age-grading.
On Feb. 20, 1999, Rex Harvey faxed Al Sheahen a copy of a letter he wrote to Len Olson, who was then writing (with my help) a history of masters track. I didn’t read the letter until Sunday — the fourth anniversary of Al’s death. Rex’s letter described the history of age-grading and the Age-Graded Tables, which help anyone in any event and any age compare themselves with others or their younger selves. It’s an amazing summary, which names names and key milestones. It’s now part of a huge trove of documents from the Al Sheahen Collection posted on USATF-subsidized mastershistory.org. Some 65 folders contain records Al kept from 1984 to 2000. (Blame the folder names on Al. That’s how I organized the uploads.) In any case, all the documents are searchable PDFs, which means that once Google robots are done “crawling” the site, you can look up names and stuff via the site’s search function.
John Seto of mastersrankings.com and Amanda Scotti of National Masters News are soliciting “news people want to see” on John’s WMA-sanctioned site. The first report on the newly redesigned site is Ken Castro’s poston the Huntsman World Senior Games. Cool. In this introductory post, they say their goal is “to fill a need within Masters Athletics, aka Track & Field, to provide you with news, upcoming meet alerts, athlete spotlights, WMA & Affiliates’ notifications and other fun posts which we hope will enhance your experiences plus help our sport grow and thrive.” They declare: “This site will further help our sport thrive and overcome funding challenges.”
Contributors to the joint NMN-Mastersrankings.com news site can use this form.
Athletics Weekly reportsa doping case against 31-year-old javelin thrower Joanna Blair of the UK. But since she’s not 35 yet, I care not. What’s interesting is the adverbial phrase in the story’s last sentence: “Coached by masters thrower David Burrell, she was hoping to qualify for the Commonwealth Games in Australia next year.” Uh oh. Bad news for David, an M50 athlete who people may now suspect of being an enabler or worse. I hope that’s not the case. It’s also possible Joanna is telling the truth that a creatine supplement she had been using was contaminated. Anyone know David or who else he coaches? Have contact info for him?
Italy bid has a logo. (That’s the best you can do?)
An Italian Facebook page suggests that three cities are bidding to host the 2022 World Master Athletics Championships — aka outdoor worlds. The cities mentioned are Tampere (Finland), Gothenburg (Sweden) and L’Aquila (Italy). Of course, Toronto will host 2020 worlds, so forget about North America getting the meet two years later. I wrote to WMA President Stan Perkins and new WMA Secretary MarĂa Alfaro of Mexico, but haven’t heard back. (It’s possible the Italian report — by M60 sprinter and shot-putter Gianni Lolli— is wrong or leaves out potential bidders.) In any case, the pick will come at 2018 Malaga worlds. If you had to choose from the three listed, what would it be?
Tuesday night was big for Team Stone. Wife Chris and I collected a total of 20 honors at the San Diego Press Club’s Excellence in Journalism Awards. (See the storyin Times of San Diego.) Counting my 14-ribbon haul this year, I’ve won 52 awards over the past seven years. (Don’t ask what I’ve shelled out in entry fees.) Among the 2017 awards was a third place for this blog and a second place for my review/interview of Pete Magill’s how-to-be-a-runner book. So Coach Pete gets credit for an assist. So now you know what keeps me busy in my day job.
Ken and Chris Stone juggle eight first-place plaques at San Diego Press Club.
Two days after South Africa’s Cecily Rootenberg became the first W90 20K race walker, Australia’s Heather Lee set a debut W90 world record Monday in the 3K track walk, clocking 24:56.97 at the 16th Australian Masters Games in Tasmania. (See results here.) She already was the W85 WR holder — and won gold and silver at 2016 Perth worlds. The newspaper report saidshe broke the former world record for her age group by almost 30 seconds, but I can’t find one for W90 (unless it’s her own W90 best). “The nonagenarian had hoped to finish in under 25 minutes – and that is just what she did,” the story said. “Her record will become official when she submits it to the World Association of Masters Athletics.” (Well, nobody’s perfect.) “Lee started walking when her husband died two decades ago, saying she felt stronger and better the faster and further she went.”
Heather has been a walk star for years, taking up sport after husband’s death.
Ed Whitlock owned the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, setting many records there. His death in March at age 86 brought the streak to an end. But he still was present for Sunday’s race — via a tribute video shown on Canadian TV. Here’s what Canadian Running Magazine, which posted the video, said of our old friend: “A tribute to Ed Whitlock, who passed away in March 2017 at the age of 86, for the 2017 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, an event that he helped propel to international recognition with his multitude of age-group marathon world records, including his final 42.2K in 2016, a stunning 3:56:38 at 85. #RememberingEd”
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
