Geraldine Finnegan handed 2-month suspension in Kamloops case
Geraldine Finnegan
Place your bets now: Will Lyndon Herzberg show in Des Moines?
According to the Status of Entries page for the masters men’s 100-meter dash at USA open nationals this weekend, Lyndon Herzberg, the supposed world-record holder for M55, is entered and declared for the Des Moines race. I’ve tried several ways to reach him for comment on his checkered past (entering crazy-ass seed times but not showing for races), but the best I could do was elicit a reply from his girlfriend, Lynn Preston. In her first note, sent Saturday, she wrote: “Thank you for writing. I don’t know all of Lyndon’s track details. He is a man of many talents.”
Christel Donley adds W75 world record in heptathlon to collection
Colorado’s Christel Donley, the W75 multi-eventer who slays every record in her path, did it again over the weekend at the USATF National Combined Events Championships in Joplin, Missouri. She scored 5,416 points in the heptathlon, beating the listed W75 WR of 4,970 by fellow Yank Leonore McDaniels in 2003. On the men’s side, Chris Bates beat the listed M45 American decathlon record by scoring 7308 points. But the USATF records page lists a pending record of 7421 by Rex Harvey set way back in 1991. (What’s up with that? Maybe the new tables elevated Rex’s old score over the 7001 mark by Ken Ellis at Puerto Rico worlds in 2003.) Also notable was the 6878 win by M50 Michael Janusey — 144 points short of the American record. Results of the men’s decs are here. Results of women’s dec are here. Hep results are still to come.
Decathlon competitors at Southwest Missouri State University included (from left) Kay Glynn, Mary Trotto, Caryl Senn-Griffiths and Claire Overstake.
Caryl Senn-Griffiths, opting for the women’s decathlon, beat the listed W45 American record of 4390 points by a whopping 1,732 points. Caryl tallied 6122 with the help of big scores in the 100 (14.19 for 761 points), 80-meter hurdles (13.82 for 830 points) and 1.40/4-7 high jump (759 points).
Visiting Brits also competed (in an annual team challenge), including Hazel Barker, who won the W50 hep with 4,464 points. Mary Dyke won the W45 hep with 2,423 points.
Christel writes: “Of course, until all the paperwork is submitted, everything is pending. Believe me, this was keeping all my wits together, and not giving up. I knew what I was trying to accomplish, but it was the hard way.”
She took pains to praise meet officials, who slaved in temps in the highs 90s.
“Back to the meet, it was organized and officiated in the best way that somebody can wish for. The weather was at its worst — maybe great for some athletes? It was a battle against the heat and humidity. We ran the 200 on Saturday in 96 F.”
Christel continued:
The meet organization was absolutely superb.Tom Thorne, his wife and his crew need to be thanked with highesr praise. Rex Harvey and his crew of officials worked tirelessly, and the schedule to accommodate the 60-plus athletes (deca and hep) all age groups was unbelievable. It’s still beyond me how the officials made it through those two days.
IT WAS A LABOR OF LOVE, and just saying Thank You is not even enough!
Driving home from Joplin left us with nothing but a great memory, well and a WR and being grateful for the comaraderie and the help we did get over the 2 days. Hopefully, somebody will elaborate about the” Friendly Rivalry” with the UK.
Val Barnwell tells The Washington Post: ‘We’re all on something’
Val Barnwell
Injury delays Darren Scott comeback after record-setting indoors
Darren Scott
Bruce McBarnette raises own M50 American record in the high jump
Competing against two other jumpers 30 years his junior, 52-year-old Bruce McBarnette cleared 1.94 meters (6-4 1/2) Saturday at the Atlantic Coast Invitational in Newport News, Virginia. Results are here. That ups his own M50 American record of 1.93 set last year at Oshkosh masters nationals. By Bruce’s count, “this was the 11th time in less than three years that McBarnette has broken a United States high jump record for (his) age group,” says a press release sent out today.
Meet director Vincent Pugh congratulates Bruce (right) at the Atlantic Coast Invitational in Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Bruce McBarnette)
Jim Stookey’s M70 short hurdles world record falls to a German
Jim Stookey, a 2002 inductee into the USATF Masters Hall of Fame, is a hurdling legend. So when one of his records goes down, it’s worth noting. The Koops in Germany report: “It was undoubtedly the highlight of the first evening sports festival in 2010 Limburgerhof: Arno Hamaekers (1940, LAG Upper Murg) improved on 17 June on 80m hurdles world record in age group M 70 to 12.96 s (W: +1.1 m). He was thus three-hundredths faster than 10 years ago, the previous record holder James Stookey (b. 1930, USA).” (Here’s a news clipping as well.) Annette and Robert Koop quote Arno as saying: “This is a great success, for the old record was set by James Stookey. . . . I am now 70 years old and it fills me with pride when I see that I still am able to put an exclamation point.”
Jim Stookey starred at the 2005 Hawaii nationals. (Photo by Ken Stone)
Italians and Germans peaking perfectly for 2010 Eurovets meet
The top masters meet this year wasn’t Kamloops. It will be the European Masters Athletics Championships. The meet I call Eurovets will draw more than 3,100 age-groupers from 41 countries. It’s set for July 15-24 in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary. Here’s the website. The Italian masters nationals (see results) were held recently, and they had so many heats in the sprints they sometimes ran timed finals. Also check out results from the Belgian and Dutch masters nationals. The German masters pentathlons were a week ago; two German masters nationals are upcoming. Here’s a video of the M50 800 at the Italian nationals, won by Lahti finalist Luigi Ferrari in 2:08.08:
NCAA championships ain’t the only place they mismeasure throws
On her masters blog, Annette Koop of Germany tells a hoot of a story about a W45 thrower being penalized by a mismarked javelin landing. Not unlike the fate that befell Florida in the team race when a Mason Finley shot put was mismeasured at the NCAA championships in Eugene. My thanks to Stefan Waltermann for this translation: “33 years of participation in the Regionals are enough. With this resolution, Susanne Strohm (*1963, SV Stuttgarter Kickers) spent the weekend in Boeblingen, host town of the regional championships of Baden-Wuerttemberg. It was the location of the only time she had missed reaching the finals in the javelin. She had a score to settle! Eleven of 15 athletes had not even been born when Susanne went to her first regional championships. Nine athletes registered with 39-meter (127-11) throws for the event.”
Lyndon Herzberg — superduper WR sprinter or just M55 duper?
Lyndon Herzberg's alter ego?
