Bubba Sparks came, blogged and conquered vault in Sydney
Wanna be a winner? Keep a blog! It worked for Doug “Bubba” Sparks. On Tuesday in Sydney, he took the M55 vault at the World Masters Games with a jump of 4.00 meters (13-1 1/2) and posted a quick comment on PoleVaultPower’s message board: “Thanks everyone. It was a tough comp with the crappy winds but it
helped that Tom (Rauscher, winner of the M60 vault at 3.10 / 10-2) and I jumped together in the same group. I’ve known him
for years and we really worked well together on the field. He was a big
help to me and I tried to be for him. He looked AWESOME on borrowed
poles.” He later blogged: “JEEZ – this was by far the most stressful and challenging competition
of my entire pole vault career. Let’s start with the constant 20-40 mph
winds that were all over the place but never a tail.” He’s posted videos of just about every one of his jumps! What a show! What a champion. Congrats from everyone Up Over!
Bubba with fellow M55 medalists Allan Williams (left) and Phil Carrero (right).
Rita Hanscom named WMA World Best Female Masters Athlete
World’s best for 2009: Guido and Rita
|
Rita Hanscom of San Diego and Guido MГјller of Germany will be honored November 22 at the IAAF Gala in Monte Carlo as WMA Best Masters Athletes of 2009. The Eurovets Web site revealed the news late last night. So did Annette and Robert Koop. Finally, WMA Secretary Winston Thomas sent out the official word at 1:30 this morning. It’s the second such honor for Guido, the M70 sprinter/hurdler who set a half-dozen world records this season, including several at Lahti worlds. He was IAAF/WMA Masters Athlete of the Year in its debut season — 2004. Rita, the W55 multi-eventer who smashed Phil Raschker’s heptathlon record at Lahti on the way to winning five gold medals, is the third American to claim this honor, after Phil in 2007 and Bill Collins in 2006. Rita beat out W45 multi-eventer Marie Kay of Australia, W45 racewalker Ada Booyens of South Africa and W65 racewalker Heidi Maeder of Switzerland as WMA best. Two Sundays ago, the USATF Masters T&F Awards Committee nominated Rita for USATF Masters Athlete of the Year. She’ll be in the running against a masters distance runner and racewalker.
Here’s how World Masters Athletics announced its choices for Best Masters Athletes.
Waller, Collins and Allie win at Sydney; but where’s Peters?
Results of the 100-meter finals are posted Down Under, but a big mystery remains: What happened to Britain’s Steve Peters after the M55 100 prelims (where he ran 11.98)? Peters, the M55 world champ from Lahti, had signed up for the Sydney World Masters Games to challenge Bill Collins of Texas. But the semis and finals show no Peters in the field. Here are results of today’s M55 final. So sorry if injury intervened. Bill won the final in 11.76 — off his own WR of 11.44 set last year at Penn. (Peters won the M55 final at Lahti in 11.57, but it had an illegal aiding wind of 2.9 mps.) Michael Waller, meanwhile, won Sydney’s M50 race in 11.59. And fellow American Charles Allie won the M60 race in 12.37. On Sunday, Phil Raschker won the W60 race by nearly a second, clocking 14.44 at age 62. (She also won the vault at 2.10 / 6-10 3/4.) Also, check out this FABULOUS report (including an amazing video on Ruth Frith).
Professional results site discovered for World Masters Games
Forget the “official” results site. The best way to see real-time results at the Sydney World Masters Games is through a link via the New South Wales page of Aussie masters track. Check out this gateway. Thank goodness for Hi-Tek Meet Manager. And thanks to the masters mole who shared the link (a gold medalist in sprints!) Meanwhile, you also can see the full list of entrants (all 28,292 from 95 nations) at the 168-page PDF on the main site. Says 2,824 are taking part in athletics.
Maryline Roux’s Olympic dream: sprinting for Ivory Coast
Maryline Roux
|
A couple weeks ago, a reporter for the Charlotte Observer called me to learn more about masters track. Tonya Jameson, the reporter, was doing a story on Maryline Roux, a national-class W40 sprinter with a startling goal: competing in the 2012 London Olympics for her birth country, the Ivory Coast. Wow! I later learned more about Maryline in a first-rate interview by Carmel Papworth-Barnum. So I wrote her and asked some more questions about her Olympic quest — which she fully realizes is a long shot. Maryline — who says her name is pronounced “Ma (like the sound ah-ah), Ry (French guttural R .. Re), Ly (Le), Ne (Neu)” — is a great sport. Even if she doesn’t make it to London, she still possesses a heart of gold. Better than any medal.
Maryline helped Athena TC win the 4×4 at Oshkosh masters nationals in July.
Damien Leake, Thad Wilson starred at the Club West meet
Nine days later, we finally have these results from the Club West meet at UC Santa Barbara. They confirm Nadine O’Connor’s 56.11 time in the W65 300 hurdles — a potential American record. But we also see some great late-season marks from M55s Damien Leake and Thad Wilson. Damien, a professional actor who runs for the Southern California Striders, put on these performances: 50 in 7.30, 100 in 12.10, 200 in 25.29 and 5.32 (17-5 1.2) in the long jump. The 50 and 100 were probably hand-timed (since the FAT system had problems). Thad, the Lahti world champ in the short hurdles, ran the 100 in 12.7, 100 hurdles in 15.7 and 180-yard hurdles (not meters as shown) in 22.7. Bob Powers, 60, had a javelin throw of 56.31 (184-9) and chin-up champion Matt Bogdanowicz, 40, ran the 2,000-meter steeplechase in a nifty 6:40.10.
Ruth delivers in Sydney: snappy comebacks and W100 gold
Good ol’ Ruth Frith competed today at the https://www.sages.org/ambien-online/ World Masters Games in Sydney, wowing the gawking media and not taking things too seriously. At 100, she’s seen it all anyway. Here’s her local Brisbane paper’s account. My favorite part is when she says she hasn’t eaten veggies since she was a kid. Just doesn’t like ’em. You go, girl! The story also teases us with news that “90-year-old Canadian Olga Kotelka. . . broke a nine-year-old world record in her age group.” (Wow, they can’t even get Kotelko’s name right!) But the official results site doesn’t list any. So we’re clueless on what Olga actually threw.
Ruth Frith was the center of attention at Sydney. (But don’t call her a centurion!)
Olympic throwers did battle at the Nevada Senior Games
As hinted earlier, throwers went wild at the Nevada Senior Games on October 2. At least two Olympians were in the hammer mix — Ed Burke and Tom Gage. And that was just the M65 group! (See results of the hammer and long jump.) Here are results for the rest of the meet, graciously provided by Tony Stephens and Al McDaniels, who also listed meet records set at UNLV. Ed is close to turning 70, BTW, as this neat article reminds me. He’ll join the M70 ranks in early March. Already the M65 WR man in the hammer, Ed can turn his attention soon to the M70 WR of 53.12 (174-3) by Bob Ward. What did Edward throw at Nevada? He went 51.15 (167-9). Not too shabby.
Sydney Morning Herald among papers covering the WMG
Sydney had practice. Nine years ago, they had a little event called the Olympic Games. But the numbers at the World Masters Games dwarf those of the Summer Games — about 28,000 are showing up this month. The Sydney Morning Herald already has a bunch of stories posted and a video report. A French wire service has a story on the obligatory anti-doping warning. It’s also mentioned in this article. But like WMA, it’s more for fear factor. Only a tiny fraction face the urine-bottle treatment. The Brisbane Times says the Olympic torch was re-lit, and 200 Olympians are entered. Lemme know how it goes Down There. Best of luck, mates!
Medals are world-class in design; hope they have enough to go around!
Chris’ 3Day campaign completed! Fund thermometer bursts
Thanks to many of you, my wife’s Breast Cancer 3Day Walk thermometer today began showing 100 percent funding! Chris has raised $2,300 from more than 50 friends, co-workers and family members. (See my original pitch.) Now she can focus exclusively on her training for the 60-mile walk around San Diego over three days starting Friday, November 20. She’s getting a T-shirt that lists the names of her backers — on the back of the shirt! We went for a six-mile stroll yesterday at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon, and she broke in one of her pairs of shoes (the one a half-size bigger than normal). 3Day walkers are told they should expect some swelling in their feet after the first day. Chris has been training diligently, and should be able to finish the trek. But she couldn’t have made it to the starting line without your help!
