Criticizing USATF is a cottage industry these days. (I own the patent, trust me.) The crazy disqualifications and reinstatements at Albuquerque open nationals have led some, especially this Facebook page, to call for Max Siegel’s head on a javelin. Max is CEO of USATF, and he’s perceived to be in bed with Nike. Still, not all denizens of Trackandfieldland are marching on Indy. In a brave post on Women Running Together, masters race organizer Joanna Harper writes: “I understand the frustrations of people over certain aspects of USATF, and some of their rulings. I would urge everyone to take a step back and to realize that, for the most the part, the organization is composed of good people who are trying to do their best for the sport.” She cites examples of helpful interactions. And she says: “I have encountered other USATF personnel and volunteers, and I have been generally impressed their abilities, and with their commitment to the sport. I personally appreciate the opportunity to compete, and the way in which various USATF people have enriched my life by facilitating these competitions.” Basically, she’s saying: Don’t tar all of USATF for the foibles of a few. Sensible advice?
Nike coach Alberto Salazar was at the center of L’Affaire DQ.
Myrle was lucky enough to get a shot of herself with WR on scoreboard in Budapest.
Eighteen Americans won world championships in Budapest — in 21 events. Three were triple gold medalists — Charles Allie (60, 200 and relay), Bill Collins (60, 200 and relay) and Joy Upshaw (60 hurdles, 200 and relay). Double gold went to Nick Berra (800 and 1500), Charmaine Roberts (400 and 800) and Thad Wilson (60 hurdles and relay). That’s my reading of Mary Trotto’s list of Team USA medalists. Mary, our Awards Committee chair, also counts 20 Americans with silver medals (in 19 events) and 17 adding bronze. I count (haphazardly) 42 Yanks with hardware. Since about 138 of us competed at worlds, that’s a batting average of .304. Did any other nation come close? Perhaps the most historic performer was W65 Myrle Mensey, whose weight throw gold of 16.91 meters (55-5 3/4) upped her own world indoor record. And in taking silver in the outdoor hammer (excellent weather, she says), Myrle set an American record of 37.08 (121-8). That beat the listed AR of 35.93 (117-10) by Carol Young in 2005. No surprise for the 2013 USATF Female Masters Athlete of the Year. Have I missed any other records set by Americans?
Americans held down three lanes in M55 400 final at Budapest. See more photos by Doug Smith
Database guru John Seto, our new hero, has imported close to 6,700 results from Budapest worlds into his world masters rankings site. See the indoor results here. (Outdoor results from Budapest have separate link.) The lists even include prelim times, so you’ll see double plants under some names. But no matter. This is a lot easier to navigate than the Budapest results site, where you have to search for an event and then fiddle with the tabs and screens to view the event results. A cool feature of the Seto site is you can click on country name and see Budapest results for just that nation. Take USA, for example. Of course, you can drill down to any athlete as well. Here’s our fearless leader’s page — for USATF masters national chairman Gary Snyder. Egg John on by slipping him a donation.
W50 gold medalists for USA: Shemayne Williams, Lorraine Jasper, Debra Hoffman and Joy Upshaw.
Munich is about 350 miles from Budapest, so it’s no wonder the Germans were well-represented at worlds (aka Earth’s Biggest Indoor All-Comers Meet). Their roster was about four times the size of Team USA. But give the Germans credit for showing up, especially on Sunday — relay day. Only the 4×200 was contested. (Easier to manage with each runner doing a lap.) Germany won seven relay golds, followed by Great Britain-Northern Ireland’s six and America’s two (M60 with Bill Collins and W50 with Joy Upshaw). Guido Müller anchored the M75 German team to one of four world relay records set at the SYMA Sport and Event Center, a 2:00.58 to beat the listed WR of 2:03.45 by an American team anchored by Bob Lida in 2012. The Germans added a WR in the W65 race, clocking 2:05.79 to beat the listed WR of 2:13.38 by another German team at 2004 Sindelfingen worlds. The United Kingdom produced the other WRs — in W60 (2:05.79) and M55 (1:40.58), beating listed marks of 2:10.44 and 1:41.47 (both by the Brits).
Budapest worlds, held in these walls, may have been best WMA indoor meet.
In the 2010 movie “Herbstgold,” Italy’s Gabre Gabric is shown being peeved at Lahti worlds. She got beat in the W90 discus by Canada’s Olga Kotelko. But Olga stole the scene by comforting her rival and reminding her that, at 94, Gabre gave away a few years. Gabre got her revenge this week. In 10 events at Budapest worlds, Olga set W95 world indoor or outdoor records in nine. The only record she missed? Gabre’s W95 WR in the discus, set a year after Lahti. But Olga returns home to Vancouver with 10 gold medals out of a potential 12. (She skipped the 400 and 800.) Had she run the longer races, she would have been piling on. None of that for modest Olga. Instead, she merely became the oldest female sprinter indoors (along with oldest lady high jumper, long jumper and triple jumper). Even her coach was awesome. Harold Morioka, a legend in masters track, took fourth in the M70 400 with his 70.63 less than four years after open heart surgery and three months after his SIXTH knee operation. (Another comebacker, American Larry Barnum, won gold in 63.81 in that race.)
Rob Jerome caught Olga in her best triple jump at Budapest. Yet another WR.
At 2013 Olathe nationals, Masters National Chairman Gary Snyder proposed a program that would pay travel and lodging expenses to 2014 outdoor masters nationals for first-time competitors. In the wonderful April issue of National Masters News, the offer was announced (top right of page 13). It’s unclear how much the “incentive” grants are. But here’s the deal: If you’ve never competed at an indoor or outdoor masters nationals and you have a USATF membership, you can get the money “on a first come first served” basis. Gary and others are kicking in nearly $1,500, along with funding from the Winston-Salem LOC. The NMN issue, the second under new publishers Amanda Scotti and Tish Ceccarelli, is a revelation, too. Besides the usual columnists (Mike Tymn, Nancy Clark, Cathy Utzschneider and Jerry Bookin-Weiner), we see a great Q&A with masters rankings guru John Seto. He appears under the column heading “Unsung Heroes,” which the publishers promise to be a regular feature spotlighting officials and volunteers. Amanda and Tish also are soliciting tales from “common” athletes, addressing a complaint that elites get too much ink. Great idea. Send them to: nminfo@nationalmastersnews.com. Who to contact about the travel-and-lodging offer? Gary doesn’t say, but writes: “Detailed information on how to apply for a grant will be sent via email to all USATF members and National Senior Games athletes.”
Click on image to read offer of free travel and lodging to 2014 nationals.
I’ve lost count of the world records at Budapest worlds, with Canada’s Olga Kotelko and Karla Del Grande and Italy’s Emma Mazzenga setting new standards in the 200s Friday. (An earlier posting incorrectly said Guido Müller set a WR, too. Oops, my bad. Bob Lida’s record of 27.64 is still best.) But I can’t overlook top performers with cameras. Besides Robert Jerome, whose shots have been featured here, Tom Phillips has been tweeting jaw-dopping images, and Doug “Shaggy” Smith has been posting photos to Facebook. Tom is UK-focused and Doug Canada-centric. But they also feature stars from other countries. Tom’s shots also colorize Athletics Weekly’s coverage of worlds. Oh, and the latest stunning WRs in the deuce? Emma’s 39.52 at 80 (lowering her own WR); Karla’s 28.23 at 60 (off her own outdoor WR of 28.11) and Olga’s 74.14 at 95 (the oldest indoor deuce in history and faster than the listed W95 outdoor WR of 79.96 by Japan’s Katsuko Iwaki). Guido ran 27.99, but that’s three-tenths off Bob’s indoor best. Also congrats to Americans Jeanne Daprano, who defended her W75 title from 2012 Jyväskylä worlds; Charles Allie, whose 25.44 just missed his own M65 WR from a year ago; Bill Collins, the oldest man in the M60 field at 63 and whose 24.70 was close to his own WR of 24.32; and Joy Upshaw, who at 53 won gold in 26.73 (her own WR is 26.24).
Tom Phillips caught Guido at start of 200 — only because Tom missed making the M55 final by five-thousandths of a second with his 26.908.
Phil Felton is circulating entry forms for Penn Relays masters events. He sent me this info sheet two weeks ago, but it fell through the cracks. Sorry. But at least we have a week before the April 4 deadline. Hope the folks in Budapest see this. Phil, reprising his longtime role as Penn masters coordinator, writes: “Note that the timetable has changed significantly from previous years, as usual it  is approximate at present and will probably change slightly, when the acceptance letters are sent out I will confirm the schedule.” The price is amazing for such a stage: $35 per team, $20 for individual event. Contact Phil for more info. Penn is April 25-26.
Here’s one of the 100-meter masters races at 2013 Penn Relays. Great fields.
Earl Fee, the Canadian hurdle/middle-distances legend, put another notch in his belt at Budapest — an M85 world indoor record for 800 meters. His time of 3:11.09 Friday crushed the listed WR of 3:30.95 by Sweden’s Holger Joseffson in 2004. Earl turned 85 only days before the meet, and basically ran alone in his age group, beating silver-medalist Marcos Bermejo of Spain by nearly 32 seconds. Alice Cole, moving up from the 400, ran 3:39.51 in W80 — beating the listed WR of 3:47.53 by Germany’s Melitta Czerwenka-Nagel in 2011. Alice also turned back fellow Canadian Helly Visser (four WRs this season). And in W50, both Clare Elms (2:21.27) and Zofia Wieciorkowska (2:23.56) dipped under the listed WR of 2:24.49 by Spain’s Aurora Perez in 2009. Perhaps the most gutsy performance in the 800s may have been by American Sid Howard, running with a brace. He broke his wrist six weeks before worlds, and still took second in M75. Robert Jerome, who again supplied these great shots, wrote: “Sid Howard led the pack all the way in M75 but was edged out in the last couple of meters to win silver.” Sid’s time of 2:53.29 was less than 10 seconds off the listed American record (2:44.24). On Feb. 15, Sid posted on Facebook: “What a bad break!! I’m scheduled to run at the Nationals .. and World Championship in Budapest next month. This morning walking in Central Park heading to the NYRR to coach the Team for Kids runners who are training for the NYC half marathon I slip on ice & broke my wrist. I don’t know how but with God will I’ll compete.”
Sid ran with a wrap on left arm after breaking wrist six weeks ago.
NCAA has big bucks, but most of all it has imagination. That’s free.
March Madness is under way. And the NCAA homepage is all over it. Meanwhile, Budapest worlds are halfway done, and the lead item on the WMA website is: Updated Budapest Schedule (22.03.2014). Come again? No news of world records set, Olga Kotelko’s W95 debut, incredible turnout (nearly 4,000 from 70 nations)? So here goes my biennial rant. Stop the madness! WMA President Stan Perkins can travel the world attending IAAF meets and inspecting bid sites, but can’t afford a penny to afford a photo of a single star at Budapest? Or feature a record? I’m not surprised. Such has been the case for a decade, going back to the first world indoor meet — Sindelfingen. (See how site lookedin March 2004.) Besides the embarrassment of our flagship site having no color or excitement, we leave money on the table when potential sponsors judge us as unworthy of attention. Seriously, the WMA website could be monetized without breaking a sweat. Even more galling: Stan has promised a makeover for years.
Gimme a break! Does this site convey excitement, drama, athleticism?
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...]
