M65 champ Sasser uncertain about Lahti (Go, Glenn, go!)
Nice little story on M65 thrower Glenn Sasser in his local North Carolina newspaper. Although he’s the defending shot champion from Spokane and Landover, he’s not sure whether he’ll go to Lahti for worlds this summer. Glenn says: “Those boys in Germany are pretty good. One is really good. The other two are about like me with their tosses, so there is not much difference.” Story makes the common mistake of suggesting you have to qualify for worlds. You don’t. But the rest of it is pretty solid. Like Glenn himself. (We need you at worlds!)
Glenn Sasser threw 44-11 1/2 to beat George Mathews
by more than 3 feet at Landover indoor nationals.
Dr. Jeremias Attila, the Eurovets winner, went only 43-9 3/4.
W40 Aeron Arlin-Genet runs and tweets at Stanford Invite
Aeron at Stanford in 2008
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A year ago, Aeron Arlin-Genet ran a potential W40 American record for 1500 meters of 4:27.68 at Stanford. I wrote about it here. She later ran a 4:21.6. Now almost 42, Aeron returned to Palo Alto yesterday and ran a tad slower: 4:30.79. But that’s about a 4:50 mile. Only Alisa Harvey can keep that pace in her age group. The listed W40 American record is still 4:32.73 by Joan Nesbit in 2002. The real record? It’s most likely 4:08.69 by Ruth Wysocki back in 1997. Aeron also ran a 2:13 over the weekend, and she’s been microblogging as the Running Diva. She tweeted: “800 strong w/ a 2:13. good place to start – solid double 15 4:30. Definitely the oldest running diva on the track both days! 41 & fly-in.” Aeron apparently began her Twitter blog on Feb. 12. She has the hang of it, all right. She shares her workout highlights, like this entry from mid-March: “3/18 workout: 8 x 500 (73 pace); 4 x 200 (35); 2 x 100 (100). focus on relaxed, strong form. warmer morning, should be real nice out there!”
Earl Fee snags his first M80 world record — indoors at 400
No breakdown of the timing system in Toronto. Yesterday at the Ontario Masters Indoor Championships, Earl Fee crushed the listed age-group WR in the 400. A week after turning 80 and being denied an 800 WR at Landover nationals amid the timing mess, The Great Earl clocked 1:11.23 — well under the 1:15.58 indoor world record by American Roderick Parker in 1999. See a great series of photos of Earl’s latest WR by Doug Smith. On the Age-Graded Tables, Earl’s time corresponds to an Open (ages 20-30) equivalent of 43.32. Utterly incredible. (Try running a lap at your local high school track nearly 9 seconds under your age!)
Here is Earl. He has no peer. The M80 champ at the Eurovets meet in Italy,
Marcos Bermejo of Spain, won the 400 title in 1:32.26.
Bill Collins and Rick Riddle write book for masters sprinters
First he’s named USATF Male Masters Athlete of the Year. Then he collects more medals at indoor nationals (despite a stress fracture in his right leg). And over the weekend he won a handicap 200 at Texas-Arlington (see the video on YouTube). Now we learn that he has a book coming out soon. Is Bill Collins busy or what?  Certainly he’s blessed with incredible talent. Now we’ll see if this translates as a sprints author. He and fellow Texan Rick Riddle have written a how-to book called “The Ageless Athletic Spirit: Speed Training for Masters Athletes.” Release date is May 11, 2009, and the publisher is Illumination Publishers International, whose primary focus is Christian titles. Illumination is affiliated with the controversial International Churches of Christ.
Ancona uses YouTube to promote its Eurovets indoor meet
Geeze! Are these guys cool or what? Folks organizing the Eurovets indoor meet in Ancona produced a series of promotional videos and posted them on YouTube. I wouldn’t be surprised if event clips eventually are posted there as well. In any case, private parties with camcorders and video-equipped mobile phones often shoot meets and post their movies. Lemme know if you come across any of these sites.
WMA addresses Lahti entry fee ‘Mystification and Reality’
A little stiff for the results book and party, but what the heck.
Masters exhibitions added to April meets at Hayward Field
The Oregon Track Club Masters has clout. Its membership provided many volunteers at the Olympic Trials last summer, and they’re influential in all things trackish in Track Town USA, Eugene. Now we learn from M40 runner Fidel Bañuelos  that the club is organizing a couple masters events just before the April 4 and April 18 Pepsi Team Invitational and Oregon-UCLA dual meets, respectively. The club reports: “Our goal is to showcase masters track in front of the always appreciative Hayward Field crowd as they settle in for the U of O meets.  We would like to assemble competitive fields over a full set of age ranges.  We will accommodate as many masters athletes as possible.  But if we have a large number of interested athletes, we may limit the fields to those most competitive in their respective age groups.  We encourage OTCM members to participate, but you do NOT need to be an OTCM member to enter.  There is no entry fee.” Way cool!  And what a model for masters clubs across the country!  Why not contact your local college to see if they’d allow masters events at their meets. Never hurts to ask.
World records galore at Eurovets; drug-tests require passport
Pete Mulholland of Running Fitness magazine in the UK reports on Days 2 and 3 (Thursday and Friday) at the European Veterans Indoor Athletics Championships in Ancona. An interesting revelation in Pete’s report: “There appears to be a high content of drug testing at the games but the
main talking point is those who are selected for a test have to be in
possession of their passport. No passport could result in a failed test!” Worth noting for Lahti-goers.
Was Rono’s payday at Landover a good deal for masters?
Henry Rono says meet organizers paid all his expenses to compete at indoor nationals.
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Everyone knows that Henry Rono had a bad meet at Landover, running with a terrible cold and taking last in the 800 and mile (in times too shocking to mention on a family blog). Not well-known is that his trip to Maryland was comped. The meet organizers flew him out. Steve Nearman, writing in The Washington Times, let that cat out of the bag the weekend before nationals. So after the meet, I wrote a couple dozen elite masters entrants at Landover to see what they thought. The result is this article for Masters Athlete magazine, which was posted yesterday. (It was intended for the print edition originally, but editor Sean Callahan liked it enough to put it online.) After I shipped the story to Sean, I sent him a new ending, which gave Henry’s reaction to the consensus that it wasn’t fair for him to have his expenses paid and other masters not. So I added it to the version below.
World records begin falling early at Eurovets meet in Italy
I won’t even try to keep track of world records set this week at the Eurovets indoor championships in Ancona, Italy. But Pete Mulholland, covering his British athletes in Ancona, sent me this note yesterday on Day 1: “It was shortly after 9:30 a.m. European time that Germany’s Christina Friederick went out to 9.42 meters (30-11) in the W55 triple jump in what could arguably be the earliest time of the day that a world record has been set. News of another world record was transmitted much later in the day after Emiel Pauwels ran 3000 in 21:25.55 to obliterate the WMA listed M90 mark of 23:12.34 owned by Frank Levine. However, sitting in the sidelines awaiting ratification is a fantastic time of 19:59.60 set by Spain’s Julian Bernal a little over three weeks previously.” And of course, Annette Koop tweeted news of Wolfie Ritte’s latest M55 pole vault record: 4.40 meters (14-5 1/4).
