USATF SoCal Masters Championships dodge head-to-head bullet
Mark Cleary writes that the 2010 USATF Southern California Association Masters Championships will be held June 12 at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. “You can download this entry form and send it or enter online at www.scausatf.org, Mark says. “Please tell your teammates and everyone you know in Masters Track & Field about this event. There are no entries taken on meet day — so please get the entries in before the entry deadline. Looking forward to seeing all of you at the meet.” Also good to hear that last year’s scheduling debacle wasn’t repeated. The Pasadena Senior Games and Mark’s SoCal masters meet were on the same day — splitting the pool of 50-plus athletes. This year, the Senior Games meet at Caltech is a week before Mark’s event.
Son of masters jumper Ron Lee sets back-to-back national records
Coach and author Ron Lee, a national-class M45 high jumper, is one proud poppa. His 10-year-old son Sean has set two national Bantam (age 9-10) records in the high jump in recent weeks. “He actually broke it last weekend at the Long Beach Sprinters youth meet by jumping 1.56 meters,” Ron writes. “The old record was 1.55 and was 33 years old. On Sunday, he upped his own record by a centimeter at 1.57 (5-1 ¾”) at the USATF Multi-event Junior Olympic Association Championships at West Covina High School. We just did the meet for fun and he took third overall. His goal is to jump 5-3 this year and repeat as the JO high jump champ at the end of July in Sacramento. I am very proud of him.” You know what this means, of course. Sean is 25 years away from entering masters! So look for him at 2035 worlds.
‘Autumn Gold’ wins prestigious Filmmakers Award at Toronto fest
“Autumn Gold,” the masters track movie, has won a major award at North America’s largest documentary film festival. Director Jan Tenhaven of Berlin writes: “Attending filmmakers with official selections have voted it best film,” Jan writes. “Our film also ranked fourth among the audience top 10 favourites out of 170+ films screened at the festival!” He also sent along this Hot Docs press release. But that’s only half the wonderful news. Jan also writes: “We have an international distributor now. It’s Jan Rofekamp from Films Transit International Inc. That’s quite a firm and it’s an honour to have a deal with him. . . . That doesn’t mean that we have a North American theatrical release coming up (which is very difficult) but Jan will certainly push the film to be screened at U.S. and other festivals.” Films Transit has shown its work at Sundance, so they’re a big player. Glückwünsche to Jan! Hope “Autumn Gold” screens here soon.
Gault turns 10.84 and 22.12 at Oxy; Ottey turns the big Five-Oh
Merlene Ottey
Helen Yarber dies at 87; thrower at Senior Games in Texas
Helen Yarber
Carroll DeWeese cancer update: Still ticketed for Sacramento
Carroll DeWeese
Zambia Olympian Kalembo shooting for M50 world record at 400
According to an Atlanta newspaper article yesterday, Douglas Kalembo is gunning for the M50 world record over 400 meters this summer. Douglas Kalembo who? Glad you asked. He’s a 1988 Olympian (with a best of 46.89) who ran the 800 at 1991 IAAF worlds in Tokyo (taking last in a heat won by Johnny Gray). The Swiss site mastersathletics.net says he ran 51.49 last year in Atlanta. He once held the Zambian national 800 record of 1:46.93. He’s the real deal. “He was hand-timed Tuesday in 50.1, spiking his confidence for the USA Masters championships this summer,” says the article. But his birthday is listed as July 24, 1960 — and Sacramento nationals start July 22, so he’ll run in the M45 group at Sacto. The listed M50 WR is Fred Sowerby’s 51.39 from 1999. So that seems in reach — after nationals. Go get it, Douglas!
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San Diego all-comers series announced; McMahon meet returns
USATF San Diego and local store Movin Shoes (correction to earlier post) have announced a series of Wednesday night all-comer meets. Also revealed is a return of the Chuck McMahon Memorial Masters Meet — which didn’t happen in 2009. Yippeee! Here are details. The McMahon meet (financed through a bequest by the late weightman) is set for Saturday, July 17, at Cal State San Marcos. Masters multi-eventer Steve Kleinstuber is the contact person. Event schedules and prizes are told here. The date of July 17 threads the needle. It’s the weekend before USATF masters nationals in Sacramento. And it’s the weekend after the USATF Western Regional masters meet (with a site still TBA). Meanwhile, I’ve learned that the WMA regional championships for North America, Caribbean and Central America is still possible (and presumably in the USA). WMA regional prez Brian Keaveney writes: “There is a bid coming forward. I will disclose the information once I have it.”
‘Autumn Gold’ masters track documentary is boffo in Toronto
Jan Tenhaven’s movie about masters track — following five older folks to Lahti worlds — isn’t just a hit at the Toronto “Hot Docs” documentary film festival. It’s certifiably No. 1 with “Hot Doc” audiences. “Autumn Gold” led a popularity poll list of 20 films as of Wednesday night. And nice reviews are trickling in. “A number of us were at Tuesday night’s World Premier of Autumn Gold,” wrote Ontario Masters Track President Doug Smith. “The director, Jan, was present for a Q&A. Canadian multi-gold medalist Olga Kotelko’s WR discus throw is part of one segment. . . . Jan did a great job of capturing the personalities and motivations of these athletes. . . . I highly recommend it – two thumbs up! Ebert & Smith.” Here’s the new German trailer:
Results and photos posted from the Striders Meet of Champions
Running into strong winds is never fun. But early in the season, wind-hampered marks can serve to motivate. If you ran at the Striders Meet of Champions last Saturday, you also can factor in the slow track at Orange Coast College. So overall, take a second off the 100 and two off the 200 to see what you really ran. Here are complete results. Among the best marks at Costa Mesa were W45 Jai Black’s 28.4 (into a 2.8 mps wind) and 62.4 in the 2 and 4. Jai (pronounced Jay) is training for the 400. Great set of photos also are posted from the Meet of Champions. Check out Dave Peeters’ work. Many thanks to Striders president Brenda Matthews for providing meet results.
Sprinters in their 60s hammer middle of 100. (Photo by Chris Stone)
