Latest on Oshkosh packet pickup: starts Wednesday p.m.
A masters mole shares this latest info on Oshkosh event check-in and packet pickup, saying a meet official sent this note: “We will have an early packet pick-up for participants at the stadium
right next to the weigh in room from 4pm to 6pm on Wednesday July 8th.
At this table, participants will also be able to declare for the 5000
meters which will take place the next morning. ” Earlier comments left the impression that check-in wasn’t happening until Thursday.
The USATF Web site has been confusing as well, saying here: “Packet pick-up will be at the Festival Foods Ticket Booth located at the front gate of the stadium from 6:30am-1:30pm Thurs-Sun of the meet” and then five paragraphs later saying: “We will have an early packet pick-up for participants at the stadium right next to the weigh in room from 4pm to 6pm on Wednesday July 8th. At this table participants will also be able to declare for the 5000 meters which will take place the next morning.”
The loneliness of the long-distance liver: M95s soldier on
In helping write a USATF press release on Oshkosh — now just a week away — I noted: “And for the first time in recent memory, three 95-year-olds are entered in masters nationals. Two will face off in the 400 and 800: Masters Hall of Famer Max Springer of Tennessee and Frank Levine of Pennsylvania. The third M95 entrant is Leland McPhie of San Diego, who will battle Springer in the long jump and triple jump. McPhie has set several M95 world records this year, and Levine last month broke the American record in the 400.” This isn’t just age genuflection. These guys have bigger hurdles than mere mortality.
From left: M95s Frank Levine, Max Springer and Leland McPhie
Levine and Lewis blast American records at East Regionals
Jerry Bookin-Weiner, USATF masters throwing events coordinator, graciously shares this results link for the USATF East Region Masters Championships held Saturday at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. Two American age-group records were set, he notes — by Frank Levine in the M95 400 and Neni Lewis in the W45 superweight. Frank clocked 3:19.56 to crush the listed record of 3:53.10 by the late great Everett Hosack back in 2000. Neni improved her own superweight record, reaching 10.34 meters (33-11 1/4). Her old listed AR was 10.03 (32-11). A year older, a foot better. Great efforts, Frank and Neni! We’ll see both of you in Oshkosh.
Major survey says old age begins at 68! Not for us folks, tho
Pete Magill linked to this great demographic/opinion survey. It says: “When Does Old Age Begin? At 68. That’s the average of all answers from the 2,969 survey respondents. But as noted above, this average masks a wide, age-driven variance in responses. More than half of adults under 30 say the average person becomes old even before turning 60. Just 6% of adults who are 65 or older agree.” Of course, the older you get, the farther “old age” gets pushed back. My dad is almost 81, and he insists he doesn’t feel old. Aches and pains aside, age is in your brain. So when do YOU think “old age” starts? Me? Try 93.
Check-in confusion at Oshkosh? Here’s the latest poop
Several athletes and meet officials have been exchanging email on a simple question: If your running event at Oshkosh goes straight to final, do you have to check in the day before for a phantom prelim? What followed wasn’t so simple. Someone wrote to assistant meet director Jason Fast, and he punted the query to Sandy Pashkin of the Games Committee. Jason wrote: “Sandy told me that they would have to declare on the prelim day in order to participate in the finals. Who has the final say here?” Later, national masters chairman Gary Snyder (also on the Games Committee) wrote: “Athletes are only required to declare at least one hour prior to their event, not the day before.” So that’s where it stands now. Here’s the schedule.
Texas Masters Championships features hot sprints, throws
Wayne Bennett, the fastest 72-year-old meet director in the West, shares results from Saturday’s Texas Masters Championships at Coppell High School north of Dallas. Some nice Southwest sprint times noted. Besides Wayne’s own 14.40 and 30.82, I liked M40 John Simpson’s 11.10 and 22.99 and M60 Bill Lewis’ 12.99 — but he was DNF in the deuce. (Hope he’s OK!) Great short hurdle duel between Ken Ellis and Robert Bayless, both 51, with Ken prevailing 15.70 to 15.94. M50 Steve Patridge put the shot 15.77 (51-9), M50 Ken Jansson spun the hammer 53.56 (175-9) and Ed Riewerts beat Steve in the M50 discus, 51.89 to 51.15 (170-3 to 167-9). And M75 Bob Ward was his usual studly self, scoring 5243 points in the throws pentathlon (short of his own listed American record of 5588 and his own listed world record of 5646. Go figure.)
Coke star sets M90 world record for 800 meters in Italy
Ugo has an amazing story, including author and Zero-G flier. Click image for more.
Ortman, W50 relay star at Portland masters meet; videos up
Fidel Banuelos graciously reports this online archive of videos he shot at yesterday’s Portland masters meet. Fidel writes, “You can do a search on flotrack under my name (fidel) for more videos, but here are assorted videos from the pdxmasters meet this weekend. If you go to minute 4:20 (into the video), the relay team of Nemesis from Tacoma set a record.” (Apparently, Martha Mendenhall’s club broke the the American W50 4×100 club record of 58.73 by the Atlanta Track Club in 2008. The Nemesis ladies ran an announced 56.39.) (Update: They were W40 as team.) The meet was held at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, just outside Portland. The venue was the site of a combined USATF Northwest Regional Masters Championships, the Oregon Association Masters Championships and the Portland Masters Classic. I haven’t seen complete results, but stars included M55 Dave Ortman of Seattle, who set a bunch of region, association or meet records: a long jump of 5.38 (17- 7 3/4 inches), 400 in 58.78, triple jump of 9.92 (32-6 1/2 inches) and high jump of 1.56 (5-1 1/4). He also clicked off a 100 in 12.74.
Nemesis relay members (from left) were Sherri Woolworth (41),
Martha Mendenhall (50), Kris Costello (49) and Shannon Sharp (44)
Gosa, Arlin Genet claim masters exhibitions at USA nationals
Duane Gosa upset world champ Robert Thomas today to win the men’s masters exhibition 400 at the USA open championships in Eugene, Oregon. Duane, about 44, went 49.92 in windy conditions on a sunny day in the low 70s. Robert, with the best seed time of 49.76, was inexplicably assigned to lane 1. Minutes earlier, Aeron Arlin Genet, who turned 42 today, wasn’t pushed and cruised to a slow-for-her 4:40.76 in the 1500 masters event, a race that included surprise entrant Joan Benoit Samuleson, 52, who took fourth in 5:02.34 — about 10 seconds off Kathy Martin’s W50 American record of 4:52.55. Here are the women’s splits. Joanie, whose name isn’t listed in the Status of Entries, somehow made the field without going through the usual channels. Of course, she’s an Olympic marathon legend. But if she missed the entry deadline, WTF? Guess the celebs are more equal than others.
Aeron led from the start as only part of the race was webcast on Flotrack.org.
Carter Holmes continues his comeback from coma, cardiac
Consider this a miracle. M55 multi-eventer Carter Holmes yesterday ran the 100-meter dash in 2:07.82 and the 400 in 9:10.24. But then consider this: He spent four days in a coma after a massive heart attack in February 2008, and could barely stand for a long time. Jim Schoffman reports: “Carter . . . returned to the track today at the Star of the North Games. He competed in the 100, 200, 400, javelin and shotput. He used a walker and was delighted that he was a participant. The article in the St. Cloud Times has all the details and his remarkable recovery.” Results are posted here. Disabled in body but not willpower, Carter is our hero today.
Carter, heading for water, ran the steeple at Eugene several years ago.
