USATF prez gives shout-out to masters and promises money
USATF president Stephanie Hightower genuflects our way, but show us the money. In her latest message, she says: “Our first year of Challenge Grants is one way we were able to put additional dollars toward traditionally underfunded programs in youth, masters and race walking.” In July, we got nearly $12,000 to support the new members recruiting initiative. But many other programs have been getting much more from the get-go from the USATF Foundation.
Charlie Kern adds Boston New Balance mile title with sub-4:20
A couple weeks back, Charlie Kern won the M40 mile at Hartshorne in 4:20.50. On Saturday, he added another pelt — the masters mile title at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix at Boston, where he improved to 4:19.73. See results here. His race was the first on the schedule. Great way to kick off a track meet. In the meet’s final event, Russell Brown won the elite mile in 3:54.81. Not too shabby. Hey, Russ! Come back in 20 years and see what you can do for the mile! Expect a full report soon from Philly’s Kevin Forde, who ran 4:33 in the race.
Charlie led a parade of masters milers under the 4:40 mark in Boston.
Paul Ossmann weathers speculation about his future in TV news
Paul Ossmann
Paul is second from the left in the mustard top, noting Rob Suelflohn, winner of great M50 Sacto nationals shot event. Paul was silver medialist.
Pete Magill tops all masters in national cross meet — at age 49!
Pete Magill refuses to act his age. When you’re on the deep end of the M45s, you aren’t supposed to win national cross country titles for all masters entrants. But there he was again this morning at Mission Bay Park in San Diego for the USA Cross Country Championships. With temps in the low 60s and dew on the grass, Magill was tops in the men’s masters field of 138, clocking 26:16.7 over 8 kilometers (four laps of the grassy park with low rolling hills.) That’s nearly 5 miles at 5:13 mile pace. Oh, and Pete is 49. So he beat a bunch of 40-year-olds. Same thing happened in the masters women’s race. Colleen De Reuck, 46, won the 8K race (almost 5 miles) in 28:46.6. That’s a 5:43 mile pace. I was busy volunteering with media management, but I had a chance to break away for some photos (and collect masters results, which aren’t on usatf.org yet.) Here’s my results for masters women and for masters men.
Pete Magill of Compex produces another gritty victory in masters cross country.
Dave Clingan gets long-overdue $2,500 check for website work
Dave Clingan, my partner in this now-15-year-old website, isn’t crowing. But he’s pleased to announce that his long struggle for USATF justice has borne fruit. Remember how he quit his USATF committee roles? Remember how USATF refused to pay him $2,500 it promised for initial work on the USATF masters website? That’s been resolved. On Monday, Dave wrote: “I am happy to report that a check from USATF for $2500 arrived today. My stepson just got accepted to the Berklee College of Music, so this will definitely come in handy! Thanks to all of you who diligently supported this journey of fairness, and my hat is off to the ethics committee for doing the right thing.”
Here's what usatfmasters.org looked like originally a year ago under Dave.
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Peter Taylor recovering from scheduled (but painful) surgery
Peter at party.
Peter dances with lady milers after Harthshorne races in Ithaca, New York.
LeBourne claims M50 world indoor record for 800, U.S. for 1500
Word travels fast—and slow. We’ve just learned of two new American records by Anselm LeBourne, a world masters middle-distance champion. Saturday at the Boston University Terrier Invitational, Anselm broke the 2-minute barrier indoors at age 51, running 1:59.94 in Section 8. (See results here.) In late December, running near his home, he ran the 1500 at the New York Armory in 4:13.56. (See results here.) The listed M50 world indoor records is 1:59.99 by Steve Gallegos at Idaho nationals in 2005. The listed M50 American record is 4:13.98 by Bill Krohn in 2009. The listed WR for M50 is 4:09.98 by Frenchman Pierre Faucheur in 2006.
Results from Dec. 28 Armory meet where Anselm smoked 1500 meters.
World’s top masters track magazine now online (but I can’t read it)
Hands down the best masters track publication in the universe is Germany’s Senioren Leichtathletik, which means geezertrack in Deutsch. And now it has an online presence. See it here. (This is a Google-translated version. For the real thing, go here.) Unsure how much of the magazine goes online, or if this is merely promotional, but I hope they post an English version eventually.
Pay no heed to the kidlets in the logo. The magazine does masters justice.
Canadian masters indoor nationals set for Kamloops in mid-March
Albuquerque is hosting the USATF Masters Indoor National Championships in early March, but what if you aren’t in shape (thanks to the brutal weather in many parts of the country)? Never fear. Canada is here. According to Doug Smith up in Ontario, registration is open for the Canadian Masters Indoor Championships two weeks after U.S. masters nationals. “This is the first time we’ve had an Indoor Championships in many years,” Doug writes. “We hope to have a large turnout and establish the event as an annual fixture on the CMA Masters calendar. The facility, where they hosted the World Indoors last year, is outstanding.” He’s talking Kamloops 2010, of course. “For those of you who attended the worlds, you’ll want to relive that experience (perhaps with a little less stress on the start line!),” he adds. “For those of you who missed the World Championships, this is a great way to have a very similar experience.”
How convenient: Canadian masters indoor nationals follow the USA version.
Southwest Sprinters, Millrose AA win masters relays at Millrose
A Southwest Sprinters team averaged about 54.4 per 400 last night to win the masters men’s 4×4 at the 104th annual Millrose Games. Not sure who was on the team, but their winning time of 3:37.58 is pretty nifty indoors, and they beat runner-up Greater Philly TC by 15 seconds. Whew! (Men’s results are here.) The Millrose AA won the masters women’s 4×4 in 4:28.04, besting the mighty Athena Track Club’s 4:32.38. (Women’s results are here.)
