For the record, M45 Antoine Batiste didnât take last (in 59.80) at the USATF nationals 400-meter exhibition in Sacramento (as I reported earlier, having transcribed the results ineptly). Now Iâm proud to present the true seventh-place finisher: 60-year-old Brent Cottong, who indeed beat his age. (He ranks third in the world this season.) But Brent is the champion in my book for a 770-word letter he sent three days later. Many masters thank the starters and other officials at meetâs end. Brent went them a few steps better. He thanked the president of USATF. In a note shared with me, the longtime track coach wrote Vin Lananna: âThat day was my personal dream come true.â He said âthe post-race reception I received was overwhelming. Itâs no exaggeration that 50 to 60 people literally left their seats to come talk to me. All offered their congratulations â âGood run,â âNice race,â âYou looked greatâ â that kind of thing. Some even wanted to take their picture with me.â In a P.S., he also hailed new USATF masters invitational eventz czar Joy Upshaw, who had the wisdom to include Brent in the field with the M40 gents.
Carol Finsrud, who entered the USATF Masters Hall of Fame 10 years ago, turned 60 in February, and sheâs taking full advantage of her new age group. Also home-field advantage. Last weekend, she set two world records at her donated Atlas Field venue near her home in Lockhart, Texas. According to results from a Texas Throwers meet, she tossed the 1-kilo discus 39.66 meters (130-1) and scored 4649 in the throws pentathlon. Her discus mark shatters the listed W60 world record of 39.24 (128-9) by Germanyâs Karen Illgen in 2002. Her pent mark beats the listed WR of 4519 and a pending mark by Hollandâs Tiny Hellendoorn of 4637 (which in turn bettered Tinyâs score I wrote about two weeks ago of 4597.) Carol is entered at the mid-July LSU masters nationals in all five throws, so look for more big marks.
Four dozen combined-eventers competed last weekend at USATF masters nationals in hep and decs at Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, including five women in the decathlon. Meet Director for Life Jeff Watry, second in the M60 dec, writes that conditions were âbreezy but very good weather both days â cool at start of day â mild and sunny (not our 90-plus combined event temp from last couple years).â No records fell, but great marks were made by M40 Jeferson Souza and M60 Noel Ruebel (who scored over 800 points in his first two events). Jeferson had a huge hurdle race.â W35 Stephanie Colby opened at 10-6 in the vault (âmade easilyâ) but tore her Achilles at 11. She did a one-legged throw in jav and hopped across start in 1500 – then went to the hospital. Jeff called it a âbeastlike performance.â Men’s deca results are here. Women’s deca results are here. And heptathlon results are here.
Iced Steph gets support at javelin after Achilles injury. Facebook photo
In late April, I was contacted by a documentary filmmaker shooting a short about the 119-year-old (bogus) sprinter in India, Dharam Singh. I gave my thoughts to a film crew for three hours at the San Diego State University track. Tonight (Monday), their efforts will be shown on the “Explorer” series of National Geographic Channel. It’s likely 10 p.m. on the East and West coasts, and 9 p.m. Central. I’m not sure whether I’m in the final cut. (And another version will be posted on Vimeo eventually, I’m told.) But this should be interesting. It builds on the work by Jere Longman of The New York Times, who exposed the age fraud. My guess is the documentary will focus on how Dharam doesn’t give a damn about the Times’ report. He’s just soaking up the adulation of his Indian village, which also doesn’t give a hoot about MSM. They just love having a “star” in their midst. “It’ll be available to watch on TV and online,” said Mor Albalak of MEL Films. “We’re really excited about the piece and hope that you’ll enjoy it! Following [NatGeo’s] release, we’ll be releasing our longer and more in-depth version of the film on melfilms.com.”
Antwon Dussett easily won the masters menâs 400 exhibition Sunday at Sacto open nationals, clocking an M40 world leading 49.01. (No. 2 is 50.13 by a Brazilian.) His mark is less than six-tenths of a second off the listed American record of 48.44 by James King in 1989. Nice! The womenâs winner was W40 Angee Henry, whose 57.11 is way better than the world No. 2 this season of 60.35 by an Aussie. Itâs also close to the listed AR of 56.90 by Latrica Dendy at 2016 Perth worlds. Double nice! But word also arrived of a new M50 WR at the 400 by our old friend Roland Gröger, whose 50.73 made him the first M50 to go sub-51. His coach, Daniele Biffi, said âour goal was 50.80!â The race was in Sundayâs Nord Germany Championships in Berlin (see results here). Roland ran 51.02last year, but didnât get credit for beating Fred Sowerbyâs listed M50 WR of 51.39 from 1999. âNext week we have the German Championships.â Also at Sacto: Justin Gatlin won the 100 in an M35 WR 9.95 (beating a Kim Collins 9.96), and Jenn Suhr at 35 took silver in the vault at 4.65 (15-3). Not as good as her 5.83 (15-10) also at 35. But USATF/WMA better recognize this as superior to Stacy Dragila’s listed WR of 4.55!
Charlie Rader is 69. He once held the M45 American record in the high jump, doing the straddle. On Saturday at the USA Masters Games at UC San Diego, he delighted himself by clearing 1.60 meters (5-3) â his best mark since 2014. More important: He’s on a roll toward challenging the listed M70 world record of 1.59 (5-2 1/2) set 10 years ago by Sweden’s Carl-Erik SaÌrndal. (The indoor record is the same, also by Carl.) The mark brings back memories. Charlie was a graduate assistant from Cal State Fullerton when I was a 5-4 sophomore high jumper at nearby Valencia High School in north Orange County. (He jumped about 6-11 in college.) Now he’s only a foot below his 1993 season best of 1.92 (6-3 1/2). So come April 2018, if he keeps his form and fitness, he could be No. 1 in the world. Also competing on Day 1 of the games was Quenton “Doug” Torbert in the shot, whose best heave was 15.93 (52-3 1/4). That’s off his season best, in Eugene, of 16.66 (54-8), now the listed WR. Doug says he’s training through this meet, pointing for LSU nationals. Photos of him and many others are in this Google Drive folder. Feel free to download any, but please give me a photo credit.
One of the best straddle technicians in masters, Charlie has starred for decades.
Sunday afternoon in Sacramento, between the semifinals of the womenâs 200 and menâs high hurdles, packed fields of masters quarter-milers â women and men â take the stage at USATF open nationals. But online that stage has barely any spotlight. The 400s arenât mentioned on the USATF results site. The entries arenât listed on the official heat sheets. You have to dive into the homepage for nationals to see a reference to exhibition events. Such a shame. Joy Upshaw, taking over from Mark Cleary as exhibitions czar, has done a great job assembling the fields. Every lane should be filled (unlike races at previous nationals). Sheâs gathered personal info from each entrant for use at Sacto. Itâll be a great show. Just hope the livestream doesnât overlook our folks. The women go at 12:38 p.m. Pacific and the men 10 minutes later. Best of luck to all. Read the rest of this post »
Aiming to improve the mid-July Baton Rouge nationals, USATF officials Jeff Brower and Bill Murray are working hard behind the scenes. Jeff sends word that heâs created this online tool for people looking to join a 4×100, 4×400 or 4×800 at LSU. Also the shuttle hurdles. (You can form an âad hocâ foursome if you donât have a club.) âYour email address IS protected from spam-mining software,â Jeff says. âDon’t fill this out unless you want your contact information available for others to contact you.â He says heâll delete the contact data after nationals. Bill, the record-setting decathlete now on the Games Committee, writes: âMasters Track now has over 30 poles that will be available at all the Masters National T&F Championships, starting in Baton Rouge, LA. The pole list is available here. We are still accepting tax-deductible donations. We have raised over $5,000 to date but still need about $3,000 more. If you are feeling generous, make your check payable to Masters Pole Vault Program and mail it to: Carroll DeWeese, MTF Treasurer, 932 Purdy, Birmingham, MI (yes, Michigan) 48009.â
USATF masters-branded poles will be shipped around the country as needed.
Dave Albo photo of Todd at Music City Distance Carnival.
Buried in the open mile results of the Music City Distance Carnival nearly two weeks ago is a fifth-place 4:26.39 by Todd Straka. The Nashville results donât reveal two key things: Todd is 50, and his time is less than 2 seconds off Nolan Shaheedâs listed world record of 4:25.04 from 2001. So yowza! I had to learn more. Recently I connected with Todd, and was stunned to learn something else: He didn’t run in high school or college, âalthough I did run about 6:02 for the mile in junior high for the President’s Fitness Test and 12:02 for the 2-mile in a college time trial for a jogging class.â What kept him from becoming a middle-distance star? He played that sport with a strange-looking ball on a field with horizontal stripes. âYeah, I played football for my first two years,â he wrote. âSince we had to run for football and it was usually part of training or punishment, I didn’t really think much about it after that. I may have even thought to myself as I noticed friends in cross country, why would they want to go through that punishment?â
(From left in red) Striders teammates Joe Ruggless, Greg Pizza and Damien Leake are all entered in Masters Games sprints.
The USA Masters Games come to UC San Diego on Saturday and Sunday, and the entry list is slim. But major names are entered, including M70 Steve Robbins (a former San Diegan) in the 100 and 200, M80 sprint gods Bob Lida and Bobby Whilden, M70 distance great Gary Patton (entered in the 8, 15 and 5k), M65 shot champion Doug Torbert and M60 TJ legend Willie Banks (doing only the high jump). On the womenâs side, W75 Kathy Bergen will dominate the 100, 200 and high jump and do well in the discus and javelin. Also notable is M60 sprinter Greg Pizza, eligible after a 20-month doping suspension.At first, I couldn’t find the meet on USATF calendar (I searched for San Diego; it was listed as La Jolla, I learned.) So it’s USATF-sanctioned. The Chuck McMahon Masters Meet â canceled at Cal State San Marcos because of same-weekend conflict â is hosting the meet.
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...]
June 22, 2017
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