USATF officials have their own email list, and Friday’s revealed a top honor for Jim Flanik, a longtime member of the USATF Masters T&F Games Committee. (These five or so folks make sure meets are run properly and fairly.) Sue Polansky reports: “It is with great pleasure that we announce the Class of 2014 of the National Officials Hall of Fame. Those receiving this, our highest honor, have not only exhibited expertise in officiating but have contributed greatly to the promotion of our sport. All have donated their time and talents to making the lives of officials across the country better and to the National Officials Committee. We will proudly welcome Laurie Boemker, James Flanik, Len Krsak, Dan Reynolds and Eric Zemper to the National Officials Hall Of Fame. Please join us at the Officials Awards Dinner and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at the Sheraton Park Hotel in Anaheim. The cost is $49 per person and we know that you will enjoy this special evening.” Congrats, Jim! Enjoy your time out of the sun!
Seth Brower, the world-class meet diector, writes from Texas: “Some pretty exciting news. [Hall of Famer] Carol Finsrud is going to let us use her Atlas Field outside Lockhart (her training area) for future throws meets. It will be such a relief to have a place I can count on for throws meets and even clinics. It already has the basic throwing areas. But need to purchase a cage, pour another pad, and do some other improvements.”
Whatta a sense of humor! Actually, she means it. Lady can throw that thingee.
Triathlete Giuseppe must have had similar expression after hearing of ban.
According to the latest IAAF newsletter, the Italian runner Giuseppe Baldelli got busted for doping and was slapped with a four-year suspension. This report, translated from Italian, said: “Giuseppe Baldelli, triathlete affiliated Fidal, according to the company Avis Perugia, was disqualified from the CONI Anti-Doping Tribunal for 4 years for use of performance-enhancing drugs. Baldelli had tested positive for NESP, the Darbopoietina, the evolution of EPO during an examination arranged by the April 6, 2014, at the Half Marathon Corciano. The prosecutor had asked for 4 years of doping stop, request received in full then. Baldelli will return to the races in 2018.” He wasn’t the only over-35er nailed. So were “Søren Hammer (DOB 13.11.71) DEN Out-of-competition test, DEN 26.03.14 2 years ineligibility 14.04.14-13.04.16″ and “Aziz Makhrout (DOB 01.01.78) MAR IAAF Rule 32.2 (c) – Refusal to submit to an in competition doping control, ‘Mezza Maratona Corcianese’, Corciano, ITA 08.04.14 2 years ineligibility 08.06.14-07.06.16.” Meanwwhile, kiddos, the IAAF has added to the banned substances list. So be careful out there.
Again, the IAAF is running a poll to help its leaders choose Athletes of the Year. Starting Wednesday, select folks will choose from top names. See the announcement. IAAF says: “A list of 10 male and 10 female candidates will firstly be selected by an international panel of athletics experts and announced by the IAAF. An email poll involving the World Athletics Family will then commence, opening on Wednesday 1 October and closing on Thursday 16 October, midnight CET. At the conclusion of the voting process, three male and three female finalists will be selected and announced by the IAAF.” Then IAAF poobahs make the final pick. I’d like to see WMA adopt this model. It gives WMA final say, but also lets some of the rabble weigh in. No debates about what events count and what don’t. Just a verdict on who is season best. Period. I’d like to try this here. Firstly, post names of the year’s top performers. Later, I’ll create a poll, where you can vote frequently and often. (Hey, it works for TV dance and singing shows.) I nominate Olga and Guido. What say y’all?
Andres Martinez of Spain, an M55 runner, is renowned for stat-keeping. He posted his latest offering on Facebook. It shows the top 300 age-graded men’s 100 performers in Spanish history (or at least since 2005). For example, the top hombre is Nolet Canto, 44, who clocked a 10.89 this year. The No. 3 man is Sanza Agreda, who ran 14.02 in 2010 — at age 75. Such lists are a wonderful way of showcasing all age groups. I hope Andres is using the current age factors from World Masters Athletics. Some online forms are dated. Andres also has posted an all-time age-graded list for men’s 1500.
Click to see full list of top 300 dashmen in Spanish masters history.
High-profile October meet bit the dust over money.
Track meets, like money, don’t grow on trees. But in SoCal, masters athletes have a rich choice — from USATF association and region meets to several all-comers series and Senior Olympics with auto timing. Beneath that sunny surface, however, lies a cold truth. Masters meets put on by clubs and others are struggling to stay alive. That fact emerged in a brutally honest reply I got when looking into the cancellation of the popular Club West Masters Meet this year. The club site says only: “Masters Track and Field Meet – held on the first or second Saturday of October each year. The Masters & Open is cancelled for 2014 but will be back in 2015.” So I wrote Andy Hecker, co-meet director of Club West with Aussie Olympian Beverley Lewis. Andy’s answer is shocking, painful to read. I’ve decided to print it (with permission) to start a conversation on how masters track can assure success for meets, and perhaps look to new business models. My suggestion: Start an endowment via USATF, and subsidize meets with the interest income.
Saturday, I made more progress on the National Masters News project — uploading 60 issues to mastershistory.org. Now 88 issues (the first nine years) are online as PDFs. So many revelations, so little time. But a favorite was the issue of August 1984, which told of hammer-star Ed Burke making the Olympic team at age 44. But I didn’t know Al Oerter had his eyes set on a fifth gold medal — at 47. Al Sheahen was editor, and even though his byline was missing, I presume he wrote about Al’s stepping in a “hammer hole” and injuring himself two weeks before the Trials. Al also quoted Al: “What about 1988? ‘Well, they say I’m already old at 47. I’ll be 51 then, so what the hell,’ [Oerter] laughed. ‘I know I’m going to be throwing over 200 feet, but how far over, I don’t know. But if I can make the qualifying distance for the Trials, obviously I’ll try to make the next team.'” Actually, I’m still missing Issue 74 (October 1984). I expect that soon from the commercial outfit that finished scanning 2,000 pages this month. In any case, check out these marvels of reportage. Sheahen was a helluva writer and hell-raiser.
Ed Burke was shown on cover of August 1984 National Masters News for making the Olympic team at 44. He threw the hammer 235-7. Incredible.
American Angela Jimenez, an art photographer who focuses on geezers, is back in the news. She’s featured in The Independent. This nice little story starts out by featuring M95 sprinter Manuel Gonzal Munoz. Reporter Adam Jacques writes: “Nor is he the only nonagenarian athlete out there: almost 50 competed in last year’s track-and-field world championships … and there are thought to be around 9,000 male and female senior athletes who compete at meets globally.” I think that figure is closer to 90,000. Whatever. At least Angela has her say: “I’ve always been interested in projects linked with the human body, especially those dealing with subcultures that challenge visual stereotypes.” We learn that she “usually shoots digitally but for ‘Racing Age’ she borrowed an old-fashioned Hasselblad medium-format film camera: “My idea was that this camera was like the athletes’ bodies – slower and harder to move, a little harder to use.”
Tip for shooting masters: Get way low and tilt camera up. We look studlier.
We’re just now learning about world records set at the Asian Masters Athletics Championships — even though WMA brass were on the scene and could have flogged the news on their website. Anyway, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun mega-newspaper reports: “The five-day competition featured 2,900 athletes from 24 countries and regions, including 1,944 Japanese. The oldest Japanese participant was Hidekichi Miyazaki, 104, from Kyoto Prefecture. Yoshimitsu Miyauchi, 90, from southern Kagoshima Prefecture, set world records in the 800 meters, 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters for those between 90 and 94.” His times were 3:50.25, 8:07.09 and 29:59.94, according to the crazy-ass results site (Use Google Chrome to see translation. Click on event number for results.) Yoshi smashed the listed WRs of 4:04.85 (Holger Josefsson of Sweden), 8:07.17 (Holger again) and 31:25.45 (Gordon Porteous of Britain). Nice job! (Yoshi’s been setting records for years, BTW.)
John Seto of mastersrankings.com writes: “The rankings submission form will be shut off starting Saturday, September 27, and back up by October 4, so please submit any results you want to before then. The site and all the lists will be available during the shutdown. I will be working on making some database changes, website upgrades and data correction during this shutdown period. Consequently, the multiple athlete results that some of you have sent and my meet result conversions and insertions may not be done until after the shutdown. Please pardon the delay inserting results.”
Me hopes John gives homepage a face-lift. It's gotten entirely too junky and self-promotional. He deserves support, but give visitors a navigation break!
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...]
September 29, 2014
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