Will Mike Powell jump 24-foot world record at masters meet?
No question that Beamon-beater Mike Powell has a shot at 7.30 (about 24 feet) and an M45 world record in the long jump. The key question is: Will he shun masters in the process? If you’re gonna try for an age-group WR, you might as well compete against other oldsters, I figure. It’s also a great incentive for locals to join the game. (Imagine going against the best long jumper of all time!) In the video below, Mike repeats his plan to seek a masters WR, and says he can do 6.70 (about 22-0) right now. We’re grateful to M50 long leaper Rick Choppa, who sent the video link. Remember, sending me information for this blog is clinically proven to improve your marks by 5 percent!
Phil Raschker’s quiet year: No worlds, just 8 golds at NSG
OK, so M20 Usain Bolt won the 200 at IAAF worlds by 0.62 second — the largest margin in Olympic or WC history. And set a WR of 19.19. Ho hum. At the National Senior Games this month, W60 Phil Raschker won her 200 by almost three full seconds! She added gold medals in the 100, 400, pole vault, high jump, long jump, triple jump and 4×1 relay. And just for giggles she entered the 800 and brought home silver. She’s been out of the spotlight this year, since she didn’t compete at Lahti, or Oshkosh. (She’s still recovering from 2007 Riccione worlds, where she won 10 golds). Before the meet, she gave a little interview to Runner’s World. In it she says she hopes to focus again on the pole vault, her favorite field event. (Remember, she made the USA open team at age 48.) Now 62, she’s thinking about challenging Nadine O’Connor’s W65 records in a few years. Said Phil: “Who ever thought when we had the first Masters World Champion vault competition in 1989 in Eugene, Oregon, when I was applauded and many were at awe about my new world record in the W40 with 8’1”, that 20 years later, Nadine O’Connor at age 67, jumped 10’5 1/2“. 11 feet is not that far away.”
Charmaine Roberts gets golden coverage in Maryland paper
Charmaine and her Lahti medals.
|
W40 sprinter Charmaine Roberts starred at Lahti for Team USA (and I have the photos to prove it eventually). Her local paper featured Charmaine today with this nice write-up. “We put in a lot of hard work in the weeks leading up to that meet,” Charmaine told writer Ted Black. He reports that Roberts came to the United States from her native Jamaica in the fall of 1987 to run track for Division II Alabama A&M University. “We train five times a week and it gets harder as you get closer to the meets,” she said. “We focus more on speed work, spend more time on the track and do more intervals. During the offseason we focus on longer runs.”
Bubba Sparks starts blog on plans to fly high Down Under
The World Masters Games in Sydney in mid-October are attracting some top-notch USA masters besides Bill Collins. One is Doug “Bubba” Sparks, the M55 Texas vaulter. Web-savvy for years (he started a Web site not long after I did), Bubba now has a blog about his Aussie Odyssey. “I have some pretty good Ozzie connections but this will be my first trip there,” Bubba wrote yesterday. “In 1992, after their housing connections fell out, two Australian Olympic pole vaulters, Simon Arkell and Adam Steinhardt, lived and trained with us for the last three months before they went to the 1992 Olympic Games. In 1996, Simon came back and trained with us again before the Atlanta Olympics. He is still a great friend to this day.” And that’s what it’s all about. Good on you, Bubba.
Bubba was colorful while vaulting at Oshkosh nationals last month.
N.Y. Times explores doping vs. medication in masters track
I guess we’ve arrived. Check out this story in today’s New York Times. You’re not a serious sport anymore until big-time papers investigate doping in your ranks. Of course, there’s little new in this report. But any attention is good, and folks who read this may very well look into track options in their area. Story quotes our national chair, Gary Snyder, as well as a bunch of older age-groupers. Other blogs have discovered the subject as well.
Photo with story mistakenly placed masters nationals in Pennsylvania. Sigh.
Results detail O’Connor’s historic 10,234-point decathlon
Complete results are in from Shoreline, Washington, and the USATF National Masters Combined Events Championships. And if Nadine O’Connor’s otherworldly score of 10,234 points doesn’t impress you, maybe her marks will. Keep in mind she’s 67. She ran the 100 in 14.70 (into a slight wind), threw the discus 21.73 (71-3 1/2), long-jumped 4.23 (13-10 1/2), put the shot 7.87 (25-10), high-jumped 1.27 (4-2), ran the 400 in 79.28, ran the 80-meter hurdles in 14.80 into a wind, pole-vaulted 3.05 (10-0), threw the javelin 18.15 (59-6 3/4) and ran the 1500 in 7:35.18 — not necessarily in that order. If Nadine had competed at Lahti worlds, she would have gotten gold in the vault, silvers in the high jump and long jump and bronze in the hurdles (and maybe silver, since Lahti had an aiding wind). In the W55 age group, fresh-from-Lahti hep WR-setter Rita Hanscom set another record with 8899 in the Shoreline dec.
Rita Hanscom (USA top) and Nadine O’Connor were top women at deca meet.
Germany’s Reinhardt Engert, relentless rebel at Lahti worlds
I first met Reinhardt Engert when he was long jumping in the M55 decathlon on Day 1 at Lahti. After he landed, he grabbed a video camera and started shooting jumpers himself. I gave him my card. Uh oh. Instant buddy. The next morning, I ran into him in the stadium parking lot, where he was living out of his VW van and finishing work on a DVD of the previous day’s events. He told me he didn’t get much (or any) sleep. He came to Lahti for gold, all right — sales of his fitness drink and DVDs. Later I learned that Reinhardt, an accomplished German triathlete, had once gotten in trouble at a Eurovets meet when he brazenly set up shop next to the LOC-authorized commercial photographers. But trouble is Reinhardt’s middle name, and he made plenty of it in Lahti. He was a hoot.
Reinhardt never passed up an opportunity to grab attention at Lahti worlds.
No change in masters false-start rule, says Beckers of WMA
The IAAF often dictates WMA rules and policies, but not this time. Newly elected Vice President-Stadia Serge Beckers of Belgium has replied to my query on whether World Masters Athletics (and USATF masters by extension) will use the no-false-start rule mandated for IAAF and other open meets starting in 2010. The answer is no. Serge, who says he’s back at work in the Belgian military, writes: “As for the IAAF ruling on no-false-start: WMA is not following this rule and our rules of competition will not be changed. So this means for our masters around the world no changes and the following is still valid for masters meets.” So no one-strike-and-you’re-out for masters. Whew!
Suzi MacLeod’s WR mile for W75 featured in Eugene TV clip
Suzi MacLeod of Bend, Oregon, has been having fun as a new W75 runner. This month, she ran the mile in 8:16.3, bettering the listed world record of 8:17.4 by Canada’s Hazel Cameron in 1999. It’s also apparently (and strangely) an automatic U.S. record, since USATF doesn’t list a mile record for her 75-79 age group. (Suzi claimed an American record earlier, but it never got posted.) Eugene TV station KEZI, which puts on all-comers meets, named her its Amateur Athlete of the Week and showed this nice clip. Great job, Suzi!
Suzi tells Eugene TV station KEZI about her 8:16.3 WR mile at Hayward Field.
M100 Alfred Proksch, other supervets in Lahti photo gallery
Besides our respect, athletes over 90 also deserve masters awe. And all the attention we can muster. So check out this gallery, the latest in a series I’m rolling out. Alfred Proksch, a 1936 Olympian and 101-year-old thrower, attracted the most press. Documentary filmmaker Jan Tenhaven was all over him with his 11-member crew and $100,000 digital movie camera at Lahti worlds. And I was all over Jan, who asked a question on my behalf. (Speaking in German, Alfred said he wasn’t going to Sacramento worlds in 2011.) Alfred also is shown throwing the discus in this YouTube clip. Others in my latest gallery include 91-year-old hurdler Ilmari Koppinen of Finland, who said he wrote black gloves in case he fell. He also long-jumped.
Ilmari ran the 80-meter hurdles in 27.04. (Legal wind!) He raced the M85 kids.
