Earl Fee lowers own M80 world record for 800 in Ontario
Doug Smith reports from Canada the latest exploits of Earl Fee: an M80 world record in the 800 of 2:48.95, crashing through the 2:50 barrier and beating his own WR of seven weeks ago of 2:53.29. Doug writes that 41 records (including meet records) were set Sunday at the 38th Annual OMA Championships at the Toronto Track & Field Centre. (See results here.) “The weather was perfect for the Ontario Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships,” Doug writes. “Eight Canadian Records were broken at our largest meet in Ontario Masters history. On the Age-Graded Tables, Earl’s 2:48.95 corresponds to an Open (ages 20-30) equivalent of 1:44.80.
Here’s a photo by Doug Smith of “The Great” Earl finishing his latest WR.
Entries sparse but marks strong at USATF West Region meet
A steady drizzle Saturday morning hindered some field events, but athletes attending the two-day USATF West Region Masters Championships at Soka University in south Orange County posted some great marks. Here are results. Again, M95 Leland McPhie of San Diego shook up the record books. This time, his marks will be submitted. He stands to become the first listed world record holder in the M95 high jump, long jump and triple jump. He cleared 0.95 (3-1 1/4), spanned 1.70 (5-7) and bounded 3.96 (13-0). He also won the shot (6.30/20-8), discus (13.92/45-8) and javelin (9.94/32-7). Other highlights include a wind-aided 10.94 in the 100 by Willie Gault, 48, and a barely illegal 29.91 in the 200 by Nadine O’Connor, 67. (She holds the listed WR of 29.37.) Damien Leake, 56, had a legal 11.82 in the 100 and a very windy 24.38 in the 200.
Dragutin Topic topples own M35 world record in high jump
Even though the highest M35 jumps on record are indoor marks of 2.30 (7-6 1/2) by America’s Charles Austin and Serbia’s Dragutin Topic, a potential M35 world record was set Saturday by 38-year-old Dragutin, whose 2.29 (7-6) won a European Cup team meet in Norway. That exceeds his own listed WMA record of 2.27 (7-5 1/4) set two years ago! High jump expert Weia Reinboud of Holland writes: “He upset my (absolute age) statistics.
Interestingly now for both men and women, decline is 2.09 cm/year, according to my method.” Also, a big masterstrack.com howdy goes to Bulgaria’s Venelina Veneva-Mateeva, who cleared a nifty 1.95 (6-4 3/4) on June 14 — a day after she turned 35. And also congratulations to Weia, who jumped 1.45 (4-9) over the weekend at age 59. And speaking of Dutch masters, here’s a nice photo gallery of Netherlands nationals on June 13. Gallery for June 14 is here. Thanks go to Dutch record holder Annelies Steekelenburg for the links.
Dragutin, shown a few years ago, competed in three Olympic Games.
Tom Jordan named acting prez of World Masters Athletics
A cover letter for the WMA General Assembly handbook notes that Oregon’s Tom Jordan, former executive VP of WMA, has been appointed acting president of World Masters Athletics. This is historic. He’s the first American to be president of WMA. Our own Rex Harvey, however, stands to be the first elected president of WMA at the Lahti General Assembly. His only competition is Stan Perkins of Australia. (And I’m awaiting returned questionnaires from both of them.) Anyway, Tom seems to have time on his hands, since he recently dissolved Northwest Event Management, his Eugene-based company that puts on track meets and served as a tour operator to eight WAVA/WMA world meets (allowing Tom with his WMA connections to scoop up the best lodging, a gross conflict of interest). We’ll see if he can resist influencing the WMA election, since Sandy Pashkin, one of his former employees, is running for WMA office in Lahti.
Tom “TJ” Jordan clowned at Cordner Nelson’s 90th birthday party in Eugene.
Insane WMA plan would force USATF to do drug-testing
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World Masters Athletics is getting too big for its britches. It was formed (as WAVA) in the late 1970s to give geezers a chance to compete in track and field. But over the years, it’s become an elitist IAAF-wannabe. That includes pretending to crack down on doping by doing a handful of tests at world meets (several dozen tests among 5,000 athletes). But at the Lahti General Assembly on August 5, 2009, delegates from 140-plus nations will vote on a 40-page anti-drug policy (see it here) that sets up a drug czar within WMA and forces “Members” (national groups like USATF) to do drug-testing at their championships. The proposed policy also contains a ridiculous suggestion that the WMA Council reserves the right to order “unannounced out-of-competition testing” of any masters athlete anywhere in the world!
Gary Hunter vaults 15-8 at age 53 — but new WR is unlikely
Doug “Bubba” Sparks reports on the PVP message board that M50 Gary Hunter cleared 15-8 (metrically about 4.77) at a special beach vault Saturday in Texas. “It was a beautiful day with a fast runway and nice tailwind,” Bubba writes. “I don’t know that it will count as a WR, but he sure made it nicely in front of a crowd of about 150.” The listed M50 world record is Gary’s own 4.75 (15-7) at 2007 Orono nationals. Here’s the official Quintana Beach Vault site. Gary also has an unratified M50 vault of 4.90 (16-0 3/4) as noted on mastersathletics.net.
Porto Alegre, Brazil, is only bidder for 2013 WMA world meet
According to the official handbook of the 2009 Lahti General Assembly (posted here), the southern Brazilian town of Porto Alegre will host the 2013 World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships. Porto Alegre, which lost the 2011 worlds vote in 2007 to Sacramento, is the only bidder for the outdoor meet, so deal with it. The meet site says the dates are July 24 to August 4, 2013 — when high temps average in the high 60s. Likewise, the General Assembly at Lahti has but one choice for the 2012 Indoor Championships — Jyvaskyla, Finland. (This despite hints in the handbook that San Sebastian, Spain, has expressed interest in hosting the 2012 indoor meet.) The 2010 indoor worlds, of course, are in Kamloops, British Columbia — the first time this meet has been outside Europe.
Bill Collins’ WR marks at Rice all-comers meet in dispute
Did Bill Collins pull a Usain Bolt last week — set world age-group records at 100 and 200? Hard to tell. Originally, Bill’s page on mastersrankings.com said he ran 11.39 and 23.31 at a Rice University all-comers meet June 12. Both times better his own listed M55 world records of 11.44 and 23.36. But when I contacted meet director Glen McMicken, he sent me results showing Bill had run 11.81 and 23.91. Oy, what a mess! Yesterday, Bill replied to my query, writing: “I will check with Glen tonight; the marks were announced right after the race, if they were changed, then I will go with what they report. I don’t want something I didn’t do, but the hand times . . . I was shown indicate a faster time. Hand times 10.99 and 23.00.” Still, John Seto of mastersrankings.com didn’t wait. He yanked the 11.39 and 23.31 marks off the site. (Update: Bill says he made the corrections, not John.) But not before I made this screen grab to show what it looked like for nearly a week:
Click for larger image.
Seattle/Davis meets taking place of Hayward Masters Classic?
As noted previously, the Hayward Masters Classic was canceled this year. But in its place, a Seattle-area masters meet seems to have taken up the slack. Becca Gillespy Peter, the vault maven, forwards results from a June 6 Seattle Parks and Recreation Department meet. Fourteen vaulters and 18 high jumpers showed up, so it was a serious event. Still to come is Mary Woo’s three-day Western States meet in July/August at UC Davis, not far from Sacramento. Mary has visited the newly resurfaced track and writes: “Boy, was I impressed! Now that UCD has a new football stadium, Toomey Field is solely a T&F facility. Even the lights have been re-adjusted specifically for track and field. No more dark gloomy ends of the track! All events will be contested within the facility, with the exception of the hammer, weight, and super weight throws. Those events will be held at the brand-new and state-of-the-art hammer cage across campus near the football stadium and aquatic center.”
Sue Grigsby profiled as Lahti world championships loom
Sue Grigsby, a W50 runner training for Lahti worlds, is the subject of a nice writeup in her local newspaper. Hers is probably one of a flood of stories that will appear in the run-up to worlds. Sue, who teaches at Everett Community College, is a veteran of worlds, since she’s been to South Africa (1997), Australia (2001), Spain (2005) and Italy (2007). “She’s been dealing with some hamstring issues,” we learn, “but she’s confident that if she heeds her physical therapist’s advice — which she admits she doesn’t always do — she’ll be in shape to run the 800- and 1,500-meter races, and the 2,000-meter steeplechase.” Go Sue!
Michael O’Leary’s photo of Sue for The Herald
