Jeff ‘Decamouse’ Watry leaves Gill, returns to Wisconsin roots
Jeff tested poles at Gill factory.
M35 world record in 4×800 quietly smashed as April dawned
Jason Rhodes, commenting elsewhere on this site, notes that a team he was on shattered the M35 world record in the 4×800 relay on April 3 — two weeks before the record attempt at Mt. SAC. The College of William and Mary, reporting on its Colonial Relays in Williamsburg, Virginia, said: “The day started off with a world record in the 4x800m relay, as the team of Miles Smith, Mike Schroer, Jason Rhodes, and Scott Anderson ran 7:55.67 to break the sub-master’s (35-39 age group) world record by nearly 16 seconds.” (See results here.) Of course, that’s actually a masters age-group record. M35s were added some years back. Our belated congrats to Miles, Mike, Jason and Scott!
Philly not City of Brotherly Clubs; PMTC prez tried to bar GPTC
Jimmy "Olympic Boycott" Carter
Trivia question: How is Joel Dubow like Jimmy Carter? Answer: Both wanted to keep athletes from competing in their dream event. Joel is president of the Philadelphia Masters Track Club. But fortunately for masters runners at the rival Greater Philadelphia Track Club, Joel didn’t pull a full Jimmy. No boycott. A week ago I was CC’d an email exchange involving Joel and the Penn Relays. Joel had written members of the GPTC: “We have been granted the right to control the entry process. Based upon a recent policy decision of our Club’s Executive Committee we are declining to accept the GPTC entry applications.” In other words, a Philadelphia masters relay team couldn’t compete at Penn — in Philadelphia!
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Pino Pilotto endures double-difficult indoor multi in Helsinki
Masters statman and blog regular Pino Pilotto of Switzerland, a masters multi-eventer (oops! combined-eventer), is one of my heroes. Not because he excels, but because he tries. Like my friend Dr. Richard Watson of Yuma — who will enter a dec at the drop of a hat — Pino loves to do as many events as possible. He took 10th in the Lahti M55 decathlon. But that was just a warmup for what he did April 10-11 in Helsinki — an indoor tetradecathlon (which Pino thinks should be labeled the tesseradecathlon). That’s 14 events over two days, double the normal. Despite a case of thrombophlebitis, Pino won his age group. (Results are here.) Here’s a snippet of Pino (shot by Rauno Möttönen) as a weight thrower — hitting the wall as it were:
Lucky Oregonians: They get to race and watch themselves online
Anyone who ran track before, say, 1996 was cheated out of a truly cool experience: watching videos of themselves online. In 1971, I saw a film of myself running the 180-yard low hurdles at the Chaffey Invitational in Southern California. Just once. Today, that race would be online. Instant access, all the time. In Oregon, home of the runnerspace website, masters entered at Hayward Field events can watch themselves 24-7. On April 10, the Pepsi Team Invitational at Hayward Field offered mastered events (results are below). Craig Godwin of Oregon Track Club Masters shares links to these races. Check out the mile won by Craig himself:
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WMA errs by a country mile on Daprano’s W70 world record
Over the weekend, 73-year-old Jeanne Daprano ran a fantastic mile. She clocked 7:02.86 at her association masters meet in Statesboro, Georgia. When I got the results from Jim and Joyce Hite, the meet directors, I checked the USATF records. I saw Jeanne was about 15 seconds off her own W70 American record. Then I proceeded to blog Carol Young’s W70 hammer AR. Later I was informed that Jeanne’s 7:02 was a world age-group record. Say what? I immediately went to the World Masters Athletics records page and saw this: W 70 7:47.91 Jeanne Daprano USA 70 05.05.07 Durham. After a minute, I realized the error. Her AR is listed as 6:47.91 at Durham, NC, 2007-May-05. A mistyped mark. WMA messed up.
Later in 2007, Jeanne ran an American record 3:07.69 for 800 meters at Occidental College in Los Angeles. (Photo by Ken Stone)
Carol Young adds name to American record list in hammer
Ed Burke, meet Carol Young. The same weekend that M70 Ed threw a possible WR in the hammer at Mt. SAC, W70 Carol threw an American record in the same event — across the country. At the USATF Georgia Association Masters Track and Field Championship at Georgia Southern University, Carol had this series in the 3-kilogram hammer: 29.06, 28.97, 27.59, 26.09, FOUL FOUL. The listed American record for the W70 hammer is 25.29 (82-11), so Carol’s best mark of 29.06 (95-4) is a huge improvement. Nice job. Complete meet results are here, thanks to meet director Jim Hite. Carol throws for the well-named Throw1Deep club, based in Georgia. Teammates include American (open) record holder Erin Gilreath.
Drake masters 800 features another big (and well-traveled) field
Before Penn dominates our attention, a quick nod to another great masters exhibition: the same-weekend Drake Relays, which again hosts a masters 800-meter race. A field of 23 gets the gun about 1:30 p.m. Friday (Des Moines times). Some great athletes have won this event over the years, including David Nash (2008 and 2009) and Kip Janvrin (2007). David is back this year, but he’ll get a race from Pennsylvania’s Nick Berra (eschewing a chance at 4×4 glory at Penn, I guess). Nick has run 1:56 indoors, so outdoors (weather permitting), count on 1:55 or better. Another challenger is Brad Dittmar, a newbie M40 who has sub-2 speed and strength. One measure of the race’s prestige: It draws from 11 states. Dave Cairns is coming all the way from New Hampshire! Pray for sun.
Nick Berra (in red and blue) won the M40 Hartshorne mile in January.
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Ed Burke nails M70 hammer world record at Mt. SAC Relays
Ed Burke in 2009 or earlier.
Kathy Bergen runs W70 world record 100 into a slight headwind
At the Mt. SAC Relays today, Kathy Bergen ran 14.76 in the 100 meter-dash, becoming the oldest woman to run sub-15 with a legal wind. In fact, the gauge recorded a 0.3 mps headwind. She easily gapped the listed W70 world record of 15.16 by New Zealand’s Margaret Peters in 2004. But she was limping afterward. Hope it isn’t serious, Kathy! W45 Joy Upshaw-Margerum won the race in a great 13.06. Johnny Speed beat Olympian Jeff Williams 11.56 to 11.73 in the M40 race. And Eric Dixon ran 12.07 to win the M50 race. Here’s a video of Kathy’s race:
