On Nov. 16, I noted the four-year doping ban of M55 high jump world champion Volodymyr Shelever. After Aussie officials declined to give me his email address, I got it from a Down Under friend. I wrote Volodymyr and he replied a week ago: “I didn’t take any drugs or steroids. I don’t know what it is / sorry for my english/. This is for me very hurt time in my life. I have no money for [lawyer] and don’t like to spent my time to [prove] I didn’t use any steroids or drugs. I did very good job like a coach and somebody doesn’t like this. Every session with my students I create something, and I really miss it. Thank you for your attention.” Thrilled to get a reply (but not answers to all my questions), I wrote him again. My main interest: How did the drug get into your system? He replied: “Incorrect question. Correct question is how did drug get in my urine?” I wrote back again, but haven’t heard from him. So there you have it. A denial and an accusation. He apparently thinks someone put Dianabol into his urine sample at Perth worlds. I have no idea if his story is credible. But it would be nice to know if he shared this account with anyone else.
Say you’re a 90-year-old who’s raced 5Ks and 10Ks locally for years. You hear of a meet in town, and you enter the 5000 — and break an M90 or W90 American record! The meet is USATF-sanctioned. Rails line the track. And you have enough rivals to make it legit. After filling out the paperwork, you deserve to see the record ratified, right? Not so fast. If Graeme Shirley and Gary Snyder have their way, you’d have one more hurdle to jump: You have to be a USATF members as well. That’s an amendment submitted by Graeme on behalf of our former national masters chair and recommended by the USATF Rules Committee for approval at the Ohio annual meeting this week. So what’s my gripe? This could derail efforts to fix our train wreck records system. How many ARs would not be recognized because of this added technicality? It also creates a pay-to-play system for records. You can’t have an AR unless you join USATF. My argument: Sanctioning and U.S. citizenship should be sufficient. We should make it easier to apply for records, not harder.
So what will WMA do if we don’t enact rule? Block our records submissions?
Canada’s Christa Bortigon and American Charles Allie got to meet Boltman at 2013 IAAF Gala.
WMA has named world Athletes of the Year since 2004, usually in mid-October but sometimes in September. The 2016 top male and female (Andrew Jamieson of Australia and Irene Obera of USA) were’t revealed until January, however. In reply to a query on when this year’s dynamic duo would be announced, WMA Prez Stan Perkins reveals that the IAAF has dropped masters from its award mission. Stan writes: “The timeline for the selection of the winners has changed since the IAAF have altered the format for their presentation awards. They no longer hold a Gala Dinner and Presentation evening and they have reduced the number of awards that are made. Unfortunately, the IAAF Masters Athlete of the Year awards are no longer part of the presentation programme and therefore the WMA Council have considered and adopted a different format for future years.”
WMA President Stan Perkins posed with 2016 AOYs Andrew Jamieson (left) and Irene Obera at Daegu.
Often in the past, when you wanted to vote at the USATF annual meeting as an active masters athlete (rather than a masters chair from your local association, etc.), you just showed up and raised your hand. Not so this year. National vice chair Jerry Bookin-Weiner writes: “Selection of the 20 active athletes who will be voting members of the MTF Committee will take place in the opening General Session on Friday morning, December 1. The selection will be done by secret ballot of the active athletes attending the meeting. Those not selected will be able to speak during the meetings and take part in other committee business, but will not be able to vote when sites are selected and other committee business is decided.” Read the rest of this post »
Ray Feick was denied a rightful shot put bronze at Daegu worlds, but got the M85 medal anyway.
Thanks to national chair Rex Harvey and secretary Amanda Scotti, the USATF Masters Track and Field Committee is by far the most transparent when it comes to reports and meeting minutes posted in the Documents Library for the Ohio annual meeting. I perused many of the 40-plus docs. The revelations are fascinating. For example, at 2017 Daegu indoor worlds, team manager Phil Greenwald reports: “There was a significant issue in the M85 shot put; several attempts were apparently incorrectly recorded and it appears that Ray Feick earned third place in his group, not fourth. While the medal was given to Ray by the athlete who received it in error, the protest was denied and the official results were never corrected.” Also, the 12 nominees for the Masters Hall of Fame are posted. (Six will be chosen and then announced at the annual meeting November 29-December 3.) And interested bidders for 2020 masters outdoor nationals are Greensboro (North Carolina), Brockport State (near Rochester, New York) and Carthage College (Kenosha, Wisconsin). The lone 2020 indoor bidder: Baton Rouge. But with 2020 worlds set for July 20 to August 1 in Toronto, USATF masters nationals may have to follow worlds. (Typically, nationals comes before worlds.)
Sabra pulled away from Kathy Martin at 2016 Perth worlds. Photo by Rob Jerome
Every year, USATF names a single Masters Athlete of the Year — sometimes at odds with the choice of the USATF Masters T&F Committee. So it is with 2017. That’s because USATF Masters LDR is part of the process, and the two committees alternate on who is recognized at the annual meeting. LDR star Sabra Harvey is the winner this year even with the stellar WR seasons of Kathy Martin and Bob Lida.USATF says: “Harvey will be honored Saturday, December 2, at the Jesse Owens Awards Banquet in Columbus, Ohio. The event is held in conjunction with USATF’s Annual Meeting.” The Document Library is pretty complete, BTW. Lots of masters reports.
Margit is being term-limited out of executive VP, so president is next step.
In October 2013, Germany’s Margit Jungmann was elected vice president of World Masters Athletics at Porto Alegre worlds. At 2016 Perth worlds, she was re-elected. And if she has her way, she’ll replace Stan Perkins as WMA president at 2018 Malaga worlds. German sites say her nomination was decided at a recent DLV council meeting in Darmstadt. “The elections to the WMA presidency are planned as part of the Masters World Championships in Malaga on 8 September 2018.” Stan can’t run for a third term (after winning his first by one vote at 2009 Lahti world.) Who will challenge Margit? Rumors here and across the pond say it’ll be Gary Snyder of Massachusetts, our longtime USATF masters national chair. Margit is quoted as saying: “I would like to continue on the successful path that we have taken together in the past four years with the [masters]. At the top of the list of priorities is more professionalism in organizing the world championships.” In 2013, Margit was appointed to the IAAF Masters Commission. I don’t know what she’s done, but she’s at least got service credits. (I don’t see any track competition history for her.)
British M45 sprint star Darren Scott shares more details on his Grand Prix series, which I noted four months ago. Darren writes: “The very first of our Grand Prix masters events will be held June 23, 2018, and is open for men/women over the age of 35 at Sheffield Hallam University Stadium. Nearest airports are Robin Hood airport Doncaster (just 30 miles away), Manchester Airport (45 miles) and East midlands (47 miles). The stadium is located on the tram line about halfway between the city centre and Meadowhall with a number of bus routes also serving the site. There is limited on-site parking for events in addition to large amounts of on-street parking in the surrounding area. Races will be graded on times, not age. That way you get a quality race. Electronic timing and wind gauges will be used for record attempts. Athletes from overseas are most welcome. The entry fee will be ÂŁ7 for first event and ÂŁ3 for extra events.” (BTW, 7 British pounds equals $9.25.)
Volodymyr Shelever of Australia won M55 high jump gold at 2016 Perth worlds, but Thursday the IAAF revealed he’s been suspended until 2021 after testing positive for a banned substance. An Aussie site says he had this in his system: 6b-hydroxymethandienone and 17b-hydroxymethyl-17a-methyl-18-norandrost-1_ 4_ 13-trien-3-one (metabolites of Methandienone). That’s a steroid sold as Dianabol. But it’s good news for South Africa’s Neal Bredeveldt, who moves up to the gold position, and American Tom Foley, who now is due a silver. Here’s what IAAF shares: “(Date of birth 25.05.1961) AUS In competition, in “World Masters Athletics Championships”, Perth, AUS 05.11.16 4 years ineligibility from 17.02.17-16.02.21 From 05.11.16.” This reminds me of Chaunte Lowe, the W30 who moved up from sixth to third in the 2008 Beijing high jump results after three Russians ahead of her were caught doping eventually. That an Aussie was a offender is happy news for WMA President Stan Perkins, a fellow Oz-man. It proves Stan is powerless to protect a countryman (thus showing he has no control over who gets drug-tested). But the embarrassment stings.
Volodymyr jumps at October 2016 meet. Anyone know how to contact the gent?
Generic geezer sprinter used with Sean post has no photo credit. (But perhaps it’s Alex Rotas)
A sportswear company in the UK has a clueless blogger named Sean, who writes for kudos-sports.com. He interviewed British masters official Maurice Doogan and wasted his time by reinventing the wheel. It appears Sean With-No-Last-Name saw a BBC story about Alex Rotas and her photos of elder athletes.Sean wrote: “Earlier in the summer, a BBC report on Masters Athletics caused quite a stir. Hitherto hidden away entirely from the mainstream, Masters Athletics sees, shall we say, veterans competing in track and field. It is genuinely inspiring to see athletes as old as 90+ getting stuck into sport at a competitive level.” Had Sean done the least amount of research, he could have covered much more interesting ground. Instead, he slept-walk through his chat with Maurice. I suppose 1 percent of his readers will learn something, but I wish Sean asked better questions than: “If 35 is the minimum age requirement, is there a maximum?”
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
