Photo gallery features masters at Mt. SAC, Gault and Harvey
I’ve just posted 90 photos of masters exhibitions at the weekend’s Mt. SAC Relays. Also are many shots of Alisa Harvey in her invitational 800 race Saturday and Willie Gault after his legal 10.80 in an open 100. Why no shots of him running? My camera jammed. (It was on a setting where it wouldn’t shoot if it couldn’t autofocus, and when it couldn’t lock in, it balked. Aw shoot.) But here’s a cute shot of Willie being congratulated by Dominique Arnold, the American record holder (12.90) in the 110 hurdles. He turned 35 last September! The album starts out with a sequence of images from the masters 110 hurdles, won by Rod Jett, and is followed by the men’s and women’s 100 and the men’s 200 (with Joy Upshaw-Margerum a guest). My favorite shot:
after their 100. Nadine set the W65 world record at this meet two years ago.
Rod Jett overhauls Don Drummond to win Mt. SAC hurdles
Rod Jett, 42, coaches sprinters at Jesuit High School in Sacramento, and last year he said: “For years, we’ve been a distance school. For the last couple of years, I’ve tried to change that.” One way is being a role model for his kids. Yesterday at the Mt. SAC Relays, Rod stormed from behind over the last two barriers to nip Don Drummond, 39. It was one of the strongest masters hurdles fields ever assembled. Rod’s athletes will replay this video of the race dozens of times. As usual, the race claimed some victims.  Jerome Millet was DQ’d after false-starting the second try. (I’m not sure who jumped in the first try.)  Rich Benoy didn’t make it past a couple hurdles; unsure why. And race organizer Richard Holmes didn’t make it to the starting line, having suffered a hamstring pull in warmups (I think). But M40 world record holder David Ashford gave a great effort, taking third in 15.13 at age 46. Below is a photo sequence of the race. A much better version (with larger images) will eventually be posted on my Gallery.Â
limited to his DQ in the race’s second start.
Alisa Harvey hangs with the elites in women’s 800 at Mt. SAC
W40 superstar Alisa Harvey of Virginia flew out Friday to compete Saturday in theambien price women’s invitational 800-meter run at the Mt. SAC Relays east of L.A. The original schedule promised one race — with 19 Buy Clomid Online women. Gulp! Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed on a beautiful sunny day in the high 80s. Officials split her race into two sections, with Alisa in Heat 1 amid six entrants. Thus relieved, Alisa, 43, stayed within a second of the leader as she courageously hung with the pack through a first 400 in 61 seconds. She finished in about 2:08.5, according to my hand-timing of the posted video. That time would have taken second in the masters men’s 800 the day before. (It’s also a second off her own listed W40 American record of 2:07.57 in 2007.) The results site hasn’t posted the official times. But below is quick sequence of Alisa’s race. Thanks go to where can i buy xanax her new club, Riadha, for flying her out to the Left Coast!
Bill Collins, recovering from stress fracture, will run Penn
In yet another crackerjack interview on his Younger Legs for Older Runners blog, Pete Magill quotes M55 superstar Bill Collins as saying that Landover’s unbanked track did his previously incurred stress fracture no good. “I started easing up after coming off the last turn (of the 200),” Bill said. “I was afraid that I’d really done some major damage to my leg. But I take nothing away from the winner (Oscar Peyton). He ran the race of his life! My doctors say the stress fracture is coming around. But it’s not going to heal until I can take a two- to three-month break. They don’t think it’s gonna get any worse. I just have to deal with the pain. The Penn Relays are coming up, and I’ve opted not to run the 100. I’m definitely going to run the 4×4, and maybe the 4×1 — we’ll just have to see how it goes.” Here is the Penn schedule, which includes about 15 masters events.
Monica Joyce crushes W50 world record in 5K at Mt. SAC
Flying under the radar but at incredible speed, 50-year-old Monica Joyce ran the women’s 5000 at Mt. SAC Friday night in 16:19.51, bettering the listed W50 world record of  17:17.02 by Sweden’s Jutta Pedersén in 1997. The listed American record is even older: 17:25.6 by Shirley Matson in September 1991. Pray that Monica had the presence of mind to get signatures on record forms. Monica ran in the 1984 Olympics for Ireland. She became an American citizen in 2000.
Mt. SAC masters exhibition videos posted on FloTrack.org
A video camera in the pressbox high in the west stands captured the masters 100s and 200 at Mt. SAC Friday. (I’m still looking for the men’s 800.) Narration was iffy, but the camera was steady. Here is the men’s 100, won by a comebacking John Speed. Here is the women’s 100, won by Joy Upshaw-Margerum. (The narrator said, “I think Joy might be related to Grace, the U.S jumper.” Well, yeah. Grace is Joy’s Olympian sister.) Willie Gault’s race is here, showing him beating several kids. Here is the men’s 200, where Greg Pizza (PIE-zuh) is constantly called PEET-zah.) Aaron Thigpen and Steve Cummings were scratches in the 2 but were announced anyway.
Masters fields thin at Mt. SAC Relays; Gault runs a legal 10.80
Joy Upshaw-Margerum, 48, and John Speed, 45, were the class of the masters sprint fields at the Mt. SAC Relays on a gorgeous Friday afternoon in Walnut, California. They won their respective 100s in 12.81 and 11.48 and 200s in 26.67 and 23.35. The masters 800 went to David Kunselman, 42, in 2:06.86. But the elephant in the room was how masters track squandered a showcase opportunity — with a couple dozen lanes left vacant. A women’s 800 was scheduled but not contested. Joy joined the lone men’s 200 when a lane became available; two men’s 200s had been scheduled. Likewise, two men’s 100 races were scheduled but only one went off. This shouldn’t happen at such a prestigious event. Meanwhile, Willie Gault, 48, opted to run the open 100, and afterward, when I urged him to race in major masters meets, he asked: “Where are nationals this year?” So it goes on Mt. Olympus.
Oh what a tangled web we weave: The case of Jerome Millet
Jerome Millet, resume padder
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According to the list of entries for this weekend’s Mt. SAC Relays east of Los Angeles, one Jerome Millet is entered in the masters 110-meter hurdles — a race reserved for ages 40 to 50. Jerome doesn’t turn 40 until May 27. He’s confirmed this to me. But that’s the least of the issues regarding this French-born gentleman who helps coach soccer and track in Southern California. (I introduced him on April 3.) Over the past two weeks, world-class track statisticians have checked their dusty databases and assailed Jerome’s athletic claims. Among them: that he hurdled in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He did not. This T&FN message board thread is not for the faint of heart. It includes smarmy explanations by Jerome that “I was not aware of the importance of the term ‘olympian.’ ” (Which he neglects to capitalize.) This didn’t amuse Cal State Los Angeles, one place where he coaches. It revised his online biography, which listed Jerome as an Olympian until a week ago.
Eurovets set 23 world records at March indoor meet in Italy
Ivar Söderlind reports on the Eurovets Web site: “In the European Veteran Athletic Championship Indoors (EVACI), March 25-29 in Ancona, Italy, I have noted 34 European Records and 23 of these records also are World Records. It is plainly more records compared with EVACI in Helsinki 2007. (One of the records in Ancona is noted outdoors, the European Record 12.02 in discus W90 by Gabre Gabric, ITA.) In EVACI in Helsinki it was set up 30 European Records and 16 World Records, in Eskilstuna, SWE 2005 it was 21 European Records and 12 World Record, in EVACI in San Sebastian, ESP 2003 39 European and 16 World Records and in Bordeaux, FRA 2001 finally I noted 43 European and 23 World Records.” And the final record count from Landover? Uhm, nevermind. Britain’s Lesley Richardson has posted a gazillion photos from Ancona.
USATF stamps out a grave threat: masterstrack.com T-shirt
Cease-and-desist letter
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Curses! USATF has foiled my nefarious plan for total world domination! My first step was cornering the market on track T-shirts. Soon I’d be king of all I survey. But alas! Lamont Jones, general counsel of USA Track & Field, has stopped me dead in my tracks. A week ago, he sent me this letter, cleverly saving the cost of a 42-cent stamp by attaching it to an email — delivered to my top-secret email address. The letter began: “USA Track & Field (USATF) has become aware that MastersTrack.com is engaging in the unauthorized commercial use of USATF’s intellectual property by selling apparel bearing the name “USA Masters Track & Field.” Oh my god! Someone had discovered my neatly disguised store. I read on: “Please be advised that the USATF name and logo were created by and are owned by USATF, and are protected under state and federal copyright laws from unauthorized copying, distribution and sale.”
Both say “USA” and “track & field.” Both even have places for two arms!
