Top USATF official Carroll DeWeese battling prostate cancer
Last year, Carroll DeWeese wore an orange vest in Lahti and a green shirt at nationals. At WMA worlds, he served as a safety judge. At Landover and Oshkosh, he was a member of the oversight Games Committee. And sometimes he sports a dress shirt as USATF Masters T&F Committee treasurer. Amid all these thankless chores, he’s quietly been tackling a bigger challenge: prostate cancer. He had an inkling about his illness months before worlds, but still excelled there; and he joined the U.S. delegation in voting for fellow Midwesterner Rex Harvey in the WMA presidency election. When I heard about the cancer last week, I sent Carroll some questions. To his credit (and my relief), he didn’t slam me for invasion of privacy. In fact, he’s a wide-open book. I pray that his M65 body is as strong as his candid nature.
Amid awareness of cancer risk, Carroll performed his officiating duties at Lahti worlds last summer. (Photo by Ken Stone)
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Nolan Shaheed tunes up for Boston with American record 1500
Nolan Shaheed, who snagged USATF Athlete of the Week in January for his M60 mile indoor record, ran one of his first outdoor meets of 2010 last night in Norwalk, California. The result? He ran the 1500 in 4:31.33 at the California Relays at Cerritos College, which beats the listed American record of 4:32.09 by Jim Sutton in July 1991. (The M60 world record is 4:27.65.) The results are here. (Click on Heat #2) He’ll be in Boston next week for masters indoor nationals, where he’s entered in the 4, 8, 15 and 3000. He’s one of the stars highlighted in this USATF press release. Nice job, Nolan. Get rested for nationals!
The near last will be first! Nolan took 14th in this heat.
Bernie P. gets Carmelized at women-running-together.com
Bernie turned 60 last August.
This is one of the best interviews on Carmel Papworth-Barnum’s crackerjack site, women-running-together.com. How can you resist this opening sentence: “Chat to Bernie Portenski and you’ll soon be laughing out loud.” I’m also a fan of Carmel’s ballsy questions, such as: “What’s the aging process been like for you?” — which led to W60 distance record holder Bernie talking about menopause. And: “What about your hair, do you worry what it looks like before a race?” — which is relevant since Bernie is a hairdresser. Anyhoo, check out Carmel’s Q&A with her fellow Down Underite.
Ross Dunton fighting Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, lactic acid
Ross Dunton at 2000 nationals.
In the eastern Tennessee town of Sevierville, gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, lives an M75 runner and coach named Ross Dunton. I’ve written about his courageous admission of Alzheimer’s — which he noted nearly three years ago in his track newsletter. His moods vary. I’ve come to accept his fiery personality. But when he wrote me out of the blue last week, I seized the opportunity to get an update on his condition. He also suffers from Celiac disease, Rosacea, Parkinson’s, “and my body will not make B12 from what I eat, so I have to inject myself with it daily,” Ross says. Wonderfully, he consented to answering my prying questions.
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Rita Hanscom salutes family and friends at San Diego awards
Rita Hanscom is used to public speaking — she’s a lawyer, remember — but the crowd that heard her February 22 at the Town & Country Resort Hotel in San Diego was full of superstar luminaries, including Olympic diving legend Greg Louganis, perfect-game pitcher David Wells and Chargers quarterback Phil Rivers. Rita showed no butterflies in her acceptance of an Amateur Star of the Year award at the Salute to the Champions annual awards banquet — in front of 900 attendees. And she was gracious enough to mention me! I was thrilled not for the free publicity but because my wife and son were present (as guests of Rita). Also, the publisher of the paper where I work. Check out this video.
Photo montage of Rita's 2009 season was shown during Salute to the Champions awards banquet in San Diego on Feb. 22.
Gary Snyder outlines steps to drug-testing, payment by surcharge
Gary Snyder has done some due diligence. Now he’s announced how USATF will launch a drug-testing program in American masters track. Besides specifying how to pay for it (by a $5 or $10 surcharge to entries at nationals), he also indicates this is a done deal. Whether on his own authority or by consensus of the USATF Masters T&F Executive Committee that he chairs, the decision is made. Debate is over. Drug-testing will come, and the masters masses have no say in this. OK dokey. Gary says: “No one else is going to pay for this. There is no pot of gold waiting to be found or grant to be awarded. So it’s do-it-yourself. I believe we will be able to cover the cost via a $5 to $10 charge per entry which would generate . . . between $6,000 and $12,000 for outdoor meets. Testing of all first-place finishers or record-breakers is out of the question and only random testing of winners is feasible. In addition, there will be a yet-to-be-determined age cutoff.” So apparently, all you M90s can dope yourself to the gills! No testing 4U!
WMA does a 180: Will seek return of relay medals in Barnwell case
Stan Perkins
Did Australia and Britain end up with silver and bronze that year?
WMA Rules of Competition have no explicit policy on the return of relay medals, but it has Rule 7.1:
WMA World Championships, Regional Masters Athletics Championships, Inter-Regional Masters competition and National Masters Athletics Championships shall be conducted in accordance with the technical rules of IAAF except as modified by the WMA Constitution, Bye-Laws and/or Rules of Competition. The IAAF rule changes shall require endorsement by the WMA Council before introduction into WMA competitions.
So I guess Stan was stuck. Someone may have pointed out the IAAF rule and he said, “Oops.”
But I doubt USATF will spend a lot of time and energy collecting medals from Val’s relay teammates.
Stay tuned.
Kamloops WR man Chris Bates hoping to reshuffle M45 dec
Chris Bates, world record holder!
Reason 2,132 why I love track: people coming out of the woodwork to surprise us all. On the kiddie level, this happens all the time. But I really dig it when “unknowns” shock the masters world. Such is the story of Christopher Bates of Oregon. Although I’ve had email contact with Chris in recent months, his stunning M45 pentathlon world record at Kamloops brought me to my feet. And my legs were amputated 10 years ago. So I wrote for details on his life and track career. His note brought a revelation: “Your email response to me in Kamloops was exciting, because no one had actually confirmed I broke the record. So reading the USATF release you pointed me to was a bit of a thrill. . . . The results weren’t announced while I was at the arena. . . I guess their computer system didn’t spit out records automatically.” Welcome to masters, Chris! Hope you stay for as long as Emil and Denver.
Chris opened his pent with a 9.28-second mark in the 60-meter hurdles. (All photos courtesy of Chris Bates, taken by Vision Quest)
Canadian masters president puts Kamloops races on YouTube
Paul Osland, president of Canadian masters track, has posted a bunch of race videos from Kamloops. He also wrote a final report on the ‘Loops experience (something our own prez should emulate). Paul began: “The WMA 2010 World Masters Indoor Championships have now come to a close. This was my first indoor World Championships; I have now been to three outdoor Championships, and to have a championship in our home Country made it very special for me. I was very impressed with the incredible friendliness and helpful nature of the Local Organizing Committee.” Here is M55 Bill Collins winning the 60 — with his patented standing start:
Cooler heads prevail: Sacramento gets loan for WMA 2011 worlds
Today’s Sacramento Bee carries the resolution to the funding-2011-worlds issue. We’re safe. “The Sacramento City Council will provide $400,000 in loans from the city parking fund to help finance preparations for the World Masters Athletics Championships in Sacramento next year,” says the Bee. “Unanimous council support during Tuesday night’s meeting means organizers of the premier international track and field event set for July 6-17, 2011, are assured that most of the needed funds for startup will be available.” Now we go back to worrying about the heat!
