USATF posts hometown roster of Lahti world meet entrants
USATF today posted the roster of Americans entered in next week’s World Masters Athletics Championships in Lahti, Finland. Click here for the list, which includes hometowns. The list doesn’t reflect recent scratches, such as Nolan Shaheed, Larry Barnum and Kevin Forde. But it’s interesting to study. For example, at least six couples are entered — the Backlunds of Oregon, the Dapranos of Georgia, the Donleys of Colorado, the Elkinses of Arizona, the Frables of Utah and the Moremens of California. And I’m thrilled to note that former world long jump and sprint champ Dick Richards of San Diego County, who helped design the Vers-A-Bloc starting blocks, is back! He’ll be in the M75 100, 200 and long jump after a long pause from competition. Thanks go to Sherry Quack and Ivan Cropper of USATF Indy HQ for getting the roster online!
Nolan Shaheed, Kevin Forde among late scratches from Lahti
Nolan Shaheed
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Lahti worlds has lost some of its luster. In recent weeks, we’ve learned of the death of Aussie masters great and many times WAVA champ Shirley Brasher and a cruel injury to M45 miler Kevin Forde. Now comes word that world masters champ Nolan Shaheed won’t compete either. Noting that injuries are a masters athlete’s worst enemy, Nolan writes from Pasadena: “My enemy has struck. A pain in my ankle that has been bothering me since March is getting worse and I tried to hang on one more meet before I got it checked out, but the pain is too much. I won’t be going to Finland but have a nice non-refundable single B&B hotel room I’d like to sell to anyone who is interested. It’s from July 29 through August 9. I can be contacted through this e-mail address. Good luck to you and all of the USA team.” Bummer, man! Nolan turned 60 just a week ago and was hoping to make his age-group debut a record-smashing one. It’s late to change lodging (and the meet starts in only four days), but if you want to improve your Finland digs, please write my friend.
The spirit of Oshkosh: Photos testify to our better angels
A small boy glows with pride for his hero dad. Marty Krulee embraces Mike Waller as the new M50 sprint great. An injured hurdler shows his pain. Another hurdler holds his hammie and wonders: Why me? Leland McPhie eats up the attention after his M95 high jump world record. Old and young. Fierce rivals but fast friends. This is the spirit of masters track. Oshkosh nationals had all on display, and my wife, Chris, and I were privileged to witness these moments and capture a few (thousand) on flash memory cards. Thank goodness we don’t buy film anymore! See our latest gallery. As always, write Chris if you’re interested in a high-resolution image in this bunch.
Sacramento launches Web site for 2011 world masters meet
The WMA world outdoor championships are off to a blazing start. I don’t mean Lahti, which begins next week. I’m referring to the 2011 Sacramento worlds. Local organizers have just unveiled a Web site devoted to the 19th World Masters Athletics Championships. In addition, I was sent this 24-page PDF — the snazzy, full-color brochure to be distributed at Lahti. Do these folks have their act together or what? The brochure also contains a list of fees. They aren’t onerous, but add up: $65 to register, $35 per event, $60 athletes party, $25 results book — and something I haven’t seen: a $5 WMA doping fee. Of course, $5 would barely cover postage for doping tests. But it’s a clue as to how many tests may be given — $5 times 6,000 athletes (my guess) is $30,000. If tests cost $200, then they’ll do about 150.
Ohmygosh: 400-plus photos posted from Oshkosh nationals
Kay Glynn’s hair rises as she clears the bar. Bruce McBarnette lowers his center of mass a second before leaping an American record. Mike Waller calmly holds off a pair of world champions in the M50 sprints. These and dozens of other dramatic moments are in our latest Oshkosh gallery. Chris and I covered all the angles, sometimes in the same race. The result is one of the best chronicles of USATF nationals you’ve ever seen. Of course, you’ll see spills a la Spokane, including this hurdler collison. But everyone walked away. It’s divided into sprints, distances, jumps, throws, hurdles and relays. For best effect, try using the slideshow function. (Click on View Slideshow at upper left. You can pause it, too.) If you see a shot you’d like, write to Chris.
Nadine O’Connor creates a wall of sand as she competes in the W65 long jump.
Enrico Saraceni edges closer to oldest sub-50 in history
Can a man over 45 run the 400 in 49 seconds outdoors? Italy’s Enrico Saraceni is determined to find out. Results of a Sunday meet in Recanati show Enrico lowering his M45 season best to 50.27 — inches shy of Fred Sowerby’s storied outdoor WR of 50.20. (Fred holds the indoor WR of 49.89.) Enrico writes: “I have not realized the good performance to the world of Sowerby. . . . I hope in Lahti to succeed in this enterprise.” On the Age-Graded Tables, Enrico’s mark corresponds to an open (age 20-30) time of 45.36. The beginning and end of his race are shown on YouTube (starting about 43 seconds into the clip) and noted on this Italian site.
Enrico prepares to blast off to the fastest M45 400 since Sal Allah’s 50.24 in 2005.
Faces of Oshkosh: Photo gallery of pain, pique and pride
Smile! You’re on Kendid Camera! And Chris’ camera, for that matter. The Stones rocked and rolled throughout Oshkosh nationals with Nikons D80 and D40, and the first of three galleries are now posted. I call it “Faces of USATF masters nationals,” and it really captures the strength and focus of entrants in extremis. Or just having a good time. Click here for the gallery. When I have time culling the best of 2,500 remaining shots, I’ll post the cream of action shots and friendship images. You’ll see what I mean. Again, you’re invited to write Chris if you see a shot you want in high resolution.
Ron Pate, 62, gets refreshed after his 2K steeplechase. He was third in 8:45.01.
Canadian masters nationals conclude, but where are results?
Kamloops, British Columbia, will host the world indoor championships in March 2010, but the LOC’s performance as site of the just-ended Canadian masters outdoor nationals was weak in the results department. We haven’t seen any. The three-day meet ended Sunday. Not even Friday’s results are posted, as of early Monday morning. Tsk, tsk. The entry lists have been up for a while, at least. Meantime, one entrant wrote me: “The officials are very friendly and professional. There are only a handful of U.S. citizens up here, nearly all from Washington state. . . . No Earl Fee. Saturday was run with a terrific . . . headwind for the the 100m (up to near 7 km/sec) and mostly head/side wind for the long jump. So times and jumps were subpar.”
Click on image for event results (and soon, one hopes).
YouTube archiving more masters track videos from nationals
Videos and slide shows of Oshkosh nationals are blossoming on YouTube. “Faster, Higher, Farther . . . Older,” set to classical music, shares my fascination with age. This 5-minute masterpiece starts with the younger masters and ends with the M95s at nationals. Meanwhile WBAY, a local TV station, focused on two M95s — Frank Levine and Max Springer. The local Fox affiliate also had a report on the M95s. Leland McPhie, also 95, was left out. But he got some pop on another station after he broke several world age-group records. In the M70 100 final, Bob Lida is shown edging Bobby Whilden in this short clip. And I was delighted to come across a long report from March on Landover nationals, which shows Alisa Harvey, Sid Howard and many others, including Val Barnwell holding off Michael Waller in the M50 200. Michael had everyone’s number four months later.
Study shows damage done by competing June 6 SoCal meets
On June 6, masters tracksters were forced to choose between two high-quality events — a USATF association meet at Soka University in Orange County and another at Caltech in Pasadena. It wasn’t a win-win for anyone, according to a revealing study by Jim Hanley, assistant meet director of the Caltech meet — the California Senior Games. “Remember that on June 6, both meets had to pay steep costs of facilities, automatic timing systems and certified officials,” Jim writes. “By the way, officials were also spread very thin on June 6 with additional conflicts with the Fontana Days Road Race and Jim Bush Western Regional T&F Championship. The quantity and quality of officials in all of these events suffered. But in addition to financial matters and worries, both meets — and the athletes in particular — suffered from diluted competition.” Jim prepared this event-by-event analysis as well. Bottom line: Don’t let this happen again!
