USATF quickly ignores world records at Landover nationals
Scanning yesterday’s results from Landover, I was in jaw-dropping amazed mode. Brooklyn’s Val Barnwell, stamping himself as the fastest over-50 man in the world, won the 60-meter dash in 7.13 seconds — crushing his own M50 world indoor record of 7.18 from Clermont-Ferrand worlds of 2008 — and without Everad Samuels to push him!В В In the M65 race, Steve Robbins of Ohio clocked 8.04, beating the American record of 8.05 by Harold Tolson in 2003 and James Paddie in 2006 — and effectively tying the hand-timed WR of 7.8 by Canadian Cecil Paul in 1986. And 58-year-old Bill Collins, the newly crowned USATF Male Masters Athete of the Year, won the M55 race in 7.38 — a foot behind his own M55 world record of 7.34 from Linz worlds in 2006! But when I read USATF’s highlights of Day 2, my jaw dropped to China.В No mention ofВ Barnwell or Robbins. No mention of Johnny Watson’s American record in the M40 60-meter hurdles (8.14 seconds). And so many errors that I nearly fainted. Of course, this is nothing new. I also critiqued USATF’s coverage of 2006 Boston indoor nationals.
Samuelson’s 3K AR featured in today’s Washington Post
Nice little writeup by Carl Little on Joan Benoit Samuelson’s 3000-meter outing at Landover nationals Friday. “Moments after the gun fired, Samuelson’s left hip gave out and she said she felt like she was going to fall,” Little wrote. “But she managed to steady herself — it took her about a lap to work the kink out of her hip — and she shot to the front of the pack. That was about her only hiccup. Samuelson led from start to finish, completed her first mile in 5:34.11, then ran the remainder of her race at an even faster clip. With every lap that passed, the public address announcer (Peter Taylor) kept the smattering of fans in attendance — and Samuelson herself — aware of how close she was to record pace.” Thanks, Pete, for leading the cheers!
Washington Post photo by Jonathan Newton
Athlete of the Year Kay Glynn: Hoping for a healthy 2009
W55 Kay Glynn of Iowa won the pentathlon on Day 1 of Landover nationals, and she’ll probably win a lot more on Days 2 and 3. And no wonder. Last week she was named co-Female Masters Athlete of the Year, honoring her 2008 season. It was her first AoY award, so she was eager to answer my questions. And how cute is this: She called her mother with the news, and Mom said: “What, exactly, does that mean? Wait a minute! Let me write this down!” Write it down indeed! For the ages.
Kay calls the vault her best event, but loves ’em all.
World records in pentathlon reported at Landover nationals
USATF’s Vicki Oddy reports from Landover nationals: “William Murray (Birmingham, Ala.) led the M55 pentathlon from start to finish, with individual wins in the first four events, to win with a world record 4,384 points. Murray began with a 9.41 in the 60m, leapt 5.28m/17-4 in the long jump, then tossed the shot put 12.21m/40-0.75 and cleared 1.68m/5-6 in the high jump. Heading into the final event with a 321 point lead, Murray finished third in the 1,000m in 3:24.98 to clinch the title and the world record. Runner-up David Ortman’s (Seattle, Wash.) 4,126 points also bettered the previous record of 4,103 set by the Netherland’s Glenn Gentle in 2007.” Other penta WRs were set by M70 Emil Pawlik (4,316 points) and M75 Robert Hewitt (4,437). An M35 American record was attributed to Charlie Kern, who won the 3,000 in 8:37.90. But I’m pretty sure others in his age group have gone faster in open meets. (In fact, M40 Tony Young ran a 8:22.99 on an oversized track in 2003.)
Samuelson kicks off nationals with American record in 3000
W50 Joan Benoit Samuelson, the 1984 Olympic marathon champ, set an American indoor record for the 3,000 today on Day 1 of the USATF Masters Indoor National Championships at Landover, Maryland. Running solo in her age group, she returned to masters nationals for the first time since 2004 and clocked a 10:22.68, edging the listed AR of 10:23.84 by Kathryn Martin at the 2004 Boston nationals. Results are being posted here. Kathryn easily won the W55 race in 10:59.36, about 24 seconds off her own age-group AR. The top men’s effort so far appears to be 9:16.42 by Craig Fram in the M50 race — but well off Nolan Shaheed’s 8:54.73 indoor mark from 2001. News of Joan’s record already has hit the PR Newswire.
Mt. SAC masters hurdle field touted as greatest of all time
Richard Holmes reports a finalized field for the masters 110 hurdles exhibition next month at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California. It’s a doozy. In a note to meet official Brian Yokoyama, Richard declares: “Believe-you-me, this is the best Masters 110HH field ever assembled. If you look to each athlete’s accomplishments within the open & Masters ranks & the number of US Titles, World Titles, World Records, Oly Trials Qualifiers, Age Records, etc — you will see this should be an outstanding race.” Richard also said he’d be willing to give up his own lane if a former superstar like Renaldo Nehemiah (who turns 50 next week) decided to jump in the race, saying: “Since I’m a local guy, I’ll make the sacrifice — even though I truly want to be a part of this one.” Don’t count on Skeets. But maybe Willie Gault might change his mind. He’d be the favorite if he opted to join the timber-toppers.C’mon, Willie!
Eurovets meet nearly triple the size of Landover nationals
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We’ll have nearly 1,000 entrants this weekend at Landover nationals. But you want a big turnout? Try next week’s European Veterans Indoor Championships in Ancona, Italy. Their five-day meet will have 2,872 athletes (2,149 men and 723 women). That’s a record for the event, according to the Eurovets Web site, which adds: “From March 25 to 29, the Adriatic seaport of Ancona will host veteran competitors, coming from 39 different European federations (a new record, too). (See the time schedule here.) The leading nation is the hosting country, Italy, with 1,214 competitors till Montenegro (1 athlete), Cyprus, Israel and Luxembourg (each with 2 athletes) at the end of the line of all participating countries. The biggest interest in events is . . . in the sprints: 517 athletes want to compete in 60m dash, even 569 are interested to run in 200m.” Of course, we’ll have a higher-quality meet, ounce for ounce. And our runners, jumpers and throwers are much better looking.
Peter Taylor announces his Landover predictions (sort of)
Peter Taylor will call the races this weekend at Landover. And since he’s been studying up on the fields, I asked him to dope some of the more high-profile events at masters nationals. Showing how smart he really is, he declined to pick the winners. He also didn’t bite on some more controversial issues. But his outspoken personality shines through in my quickie Q&A and he does forecast how many M95 American records Leland McPhie will set and how many events Phil Raschker will win. Be sure to support Peter during the meet. He usually goes without a break.
Why doesn’t Sandy Pashkin have help vetting records?
Just curious:
Who would be willing to serve on the USATF Masters T&F Records Committee? For years, this committee has had only one member — Sandy Pashkin.
Given the recent controversy over John Hinton’s rejected indoor mile
record, who might be able to lend Sandy a hand in vetting records? It’s a tough gig, but very important. Certainly such a committee
could help avert mistakes, or errors of interpretation. No single
person knows it all. Nobody is infallible. Anybody out there interested? Moreover, should Masters T&F Chairman Gary Snyder require that all official masters committees have at least five members? We need to groom more volunteers in the movement, and this would be a great place to start. I’ve also posted this question on the Forum. Feel free to nominate people to this committee. (Anyone but me, of course. I’m booked with a blog.)
Collins, Martin and Glynn named Masters Athletes of the Year
Dave Clingan and his Masters T&F Awards Committee have chosen M55 sprinter Bill Collins as USATF Male Masters Athlete of 2008 and W55 stars Kathy Martin and Kay Glynn as co-female Masters Athletes of 2008. They and other honorees were informed over the weekend by Dave. The David Pain Distinguished Service Award went to John Seto, the genius behind the mastersrankings.com interface and database, which has revolutionized our seasonal listings. Dave writes: “There was a tie for female athlete of the Year (Kathryn Martin and Kay Glynn) both deserving of sharing this honor. Both received votes from everyone who voted.” All three are entered at Landover nationals this month, and in a major first — the meet program for masters indoor nationals is now posted online! (Click here for the PDF.) Masters of the year will be honored at Landover. Great work, Landover! And congrats to Bill, Kathy and Kay!
