Iowa’s Kay Glynn pictured in latest issue of AARP magazine
W55 multi-eventer Kay Glynn, the grandmother of three with six-pack abs, is shown vaulting on page 12 of the July/August issue of AARP, the retirees magazine. Also shown in a smaller photo is Charles Modlin, 85, who the text says ran three sprint records at the 2005 National Senior Games. (Bill Daprano is also in the picture, cut in half at the left.) AARP says Charles is still America’s fastest man for his age. Maybe. But he doesn’t run on the USATF masters circuit, so I can’t find recent times for him. Of course, he’s nowhere near as fast as M80 Bill Melville and a few others in his age group. But best of luck to everyone at the upcoming National Senior Games, which AARP will cover.
Click image for larger view of Kay looking good over the bar. Photo from NSGA.
Masters double and triple up at high altitude in Lake Tahoe
Competing in the same high-altitude region that hosted the 1968 Olympic Trials, masters ran wild (and had great jumps and throws) Saturday at the King of the Hill Lake Tahoe Master Track & Field Meet. (See complete results here.) Half-mile specialist Larry Barnum, 65, had a nice 1-2-4 triple, clocking 13.61, 27.88 and 59.36. Liz Palmer, 48, ran the 80-meter hurdles in 12.67, the 100 in 13.10, and the 200 in 27.65. She also put the shot 8.77 (28-9 1/4). Paul Sinatra, 47, vaulted 14-0. Gerald Prnjak, 60, threw the discus 38.55 (126-5). And Michael Orlich, 82, threw 24.37 (79-11 1/2) in the discus and 9.16 (30-0 3/4) in the shot. Here’s a nice story on the track at South Tahoe Middle School, where the meet was held. Thanks go to Mary Woo, who tipped us off to this event — and whose own Western States meet is upcoming in late July at UC Davis. Here are photos from last year.
Hundreds of photos posted from Striders Meet of Champions
Paul Wang, shooting for Dave Peeters Photography, has more than 330 images online here from the May 23 Striders Meet of Champions at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. Very nice job. Great variety of running, jumping and throwing events, including a few series of Nadine O’Connor vaults on her first WR day in May (but shot from behind). Dave Peeters says more shots will be added. Prices are reasonable, too. Dave writes: “The first set of 331 photos are online; hope to have the others up in a few days, I will put a note on the album when all the photos are posted. . . .hope the participants find some photos that they like.” Also check out the corrected set of meet results.
Monty Hacker’s resignation letter: Mystery virus led to action
Monty Hacker cites stress of WMA duties.
|
Linda Pain, wife of masters track founder David Pain, has shared Monty Hacker’s letter of resignation of May 27. Monty became acting president of World Masters Athletics following the death of Cesare Beccalli in December 2007. Linda and David, my San Diego neighbors, have known Monty since the inception of WAVA in the 1970s. Linda wrote me: “Monty sent us his resignation letter and said he had no objection to our releasing it. . . . We are not surprised about his blood pressure, considering the stress level he has been under since taking over acting presidency as well as his vice presidential duties, plus trying to keep his law practice viable. His health needs to be a priority. . . . His resignation will certainly be a loss for WMA, but a necessary action in light of his health issues.”
‘T.R.A.C.K. Live’ soap opera continues: no cable deal known
Don’t believe everything you read, especially if it comes in the form of email dotted with a bunch of yellow emoticons. On May 12, I reported that the masters track “reality show” called “T.R.A.C.K. Live” was slated for fall telecast on the ION network. Scratch that. ION isn’t airing the show. In fact, when I wrote ION a couple weeks ago, I got a call from JoAnn Levey, a senior vice president at ION Media Networks in Burbank. She was mystified by the email announcing the show’s looming debut. ION had nothing to to do with Julia Dudley and her show. In fact, ION attorneys were looking into that claim, as well as Julia’s posted solicitation on storybids.com, an industry marketing site. The mystery was soon solved. The email was from early 2008! A year old, it cited January 2009. But wait! There’s more. The show now has this new Web site, along with promotional “webisodes” that might hurt the show’s cause more than help it.
I have no clue why this note arrived May 11 — a year late.
Vault records fall to Izzy O’Connor, Becky Sisley, Don Islett
From now on, Nadine O’Connor will be known here as Izzy. Olympic vault champ Yelena “Izzy” Isinbayeva of Russia has raised the open world record by a fraction dozens of times, and world champ Nadine is evoking her younger comrade. Two days ago, at the USATF-sanctioned Friday Night Vaults meet at San Diego State University, Nadine cleared 3.15 meters (10-4) to break her 6-day-old W65 world record of 3.13 (for which she was named USATF Athlete of the Week). “It was great fun to meet and hang out with all of those amazing young jumpers,” Nadine wrote me after Bud Held shared the news. “Several of the best in the world were there, as well as lots of young kids. They were all so encouraging to this old lady. I was proud of myself for dealing with the cool conditions and the pressure, something I am usually not good at.”
Out of the woodwork comes a threat to Oerter’s M50 record
Ed Riewerts isn’t a household name in masters track. Give him time. Although he turned 50 in March, he’s been throwing the discus for only two years. But this season has been a breakthrough for Ed, who lives in the Dallas suburb of Mansfield. His best marks have been close to 190 feet. He’s also thrown himself into the sport, helping found TexasThrowers.com with Steve Patridge, Robert Rogers and Marty Wright. “By the way, we are having our first annual Throwers Meet on (June) 6 in South Texas, ” Ed says. “Patridge did a nice job on the medals.” Speaking of nice, check out my Q&A with Ed, who hasn’t learned yet to shun the nosy media. He’s just having too much fun.
With a good wind and natural progress, Ed could erase Al Oerter’s M50 record.
Masters lose McMahon meet, but add San Diego open event
Although the Chuck McMahon meet this year was canceled, another meet in San Diego is welcoming masters tracksters. The event, called the San Diego-Imperial USATF Open Championships, will be held June 14 at Point Loma Nazarene University, whose track overlooks the Pacific. A gorgeous venue, it hosted the San Diego Senior Olympics last year. Tonie Campbell of SDI USATF writes me: “Adam Henderson will be forwarding you the info sheet shortly. We had to tweak a few things before we sent it out. Yes, Masters athletes are welcome; however, we will not be running hurdles at different heights or event distances due to time constraints.” Tonie, of course, is the Olympic hurdles medalist from 1988. Adam Henderson is the father of two-time Olympian Monique Henderson, who won relay golds in 2004 and 2008. (Update: The meet entry form is now posted here.)
Olga goes overboard: Eight world records at Canadian meet!
No kidding. Olga Kotelko, who turned 90 on March 2, set 10 Canadian age-group records and eight world records last weekend at the two-day British Columbia Masters Championships in Nanaimo. Track results are here, and field event results are here. Meet maven Harold Morioka reported: “Olga broke five world records: 200 1:04.16 (-2.7 mps wind) old WR was 1:22.29 by little Rosario Iglesias MEX, who died recently; discus 14.58 (47-10), old WR was 12.10 by Ruth Frith AUS in 2000;  hammer 13.31 (43-8), old WR was 13.13 by Ruth in 2004; javelin 13.31 (yes, same distance as the hammer!) old WR 10.97 by Juanita Brookover USA in 2005; weight 6.54 (21-5 1/2), old WR was 6.19 by Ruth in 2001. She set three new records in the jumps because there were no W90 records: high jump 0.75 (2-5 1/2); long jump 1.58 (5-2 1/4) (2.0 mps wind); and triple jump 3.93 (12-10 3/4) (1.7 mps wind). She set Canadian records in the 100 27.02 (-1.0) and shot put 4.96 (16-3 1.4).” OMG, Olga! You’re my new hero. The new Jesse Owens of masters track! Your efforts exceed the previous record for records set of seven by Don Pellmann in 2005.
Olga Kotelko (shown in 2002) made her W90 champs debut a smashing one.
Myrle Mensey keeps hammering away at American records
At 60, national champion Myrle Mensey keeps getting stronger and stronger. And throwing heavy things farther. At last Saturday’s Steel Throwers Open (put on by this club) in Franklin, Tennessee, Myrle upped her own W60 American records in the weight throw and superweight toss a total of eight times! She also had a monster foul of 18 meters (59-0 3/4) with the 12-pound weight — beyond the listed world record of 17.84 (58-6 1/2) by Denmark’s Inge Faldager. She settled for 16.24 (53-3 1/2). Myrle writes: “It was a great meet . . . . I threw the 25-pound weight 9.99 (32-9 1/2) — better than I’ve ever thrown it by about two feet. Previous PR 9.29 (30-5 3/4) at age 58. And yes, I kept them busy with the steel tape. . . . I broke the weight throw record five out of six throws and the superweight three out of six throws.”
Myrle Mensey was a double national champion at Landover in March.
