Blanche Cummings of Yorba Linda went sub-11 for the mile at Cerritos College.
Irene Obera we know. Her latest world record is a lowering of her W80 best in the 80-meter hurdles to 19.34 seconds at San Francisco’s Pride Meet. Now meet Blanche Cummings, born in August 1929, who on Saturday broke the listed W85 mile world record of 11:03.11 by Gerry Davidson in 2006. Running at the same meet as Gerry — the USATF West Regional Masters Championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk (near L.A.) — Blanche became the oldest sub-11 miler with her 10:55.25. Andy Hecker has sent record paperwork to USATF records chair Jeff Brower, who speedily acknowledged receipt. Records also were reported at the Southeastern regionals, including a WR in the M70 short hurdles by Ty Brown. But I’m awaiting results for confirmation. At the Pride meet at San Francisco State University, W80 legend Irene had support from another Irene, says Alan Kolling: “Irene Herman did a wonderful job of working with all of the officials in advance, and Joy Upshaw helped to bring the correct hurdles from Los Gatos some 35 miles away, so it was truly a team effort, and fortunately Irene justified all the extra effort.”
Milestone site earned Seto a David Pain Distinguished Service Award in 2009 from USATF.
Over the past month, visitors from 137 countries have checked out John Seto’s behemoth of a site — mastersrankings.com. “I’ve seen around 100 simultaneous visitors earlier this month and 9,000 unique visitors over a weekend,” he told me in response to queries. “There should be over 60,000 sessions and about 360,000 page views this month. There have been over 137,000 unique visitors in 190 countries over the past 10 months.” Trust me, that’s impressive. But truth is, the site hetook over in 2007 (and expanded worldwide last year after I reported the demise of mastersathletics.net) is not guaranteed to last forever. Especially at this pace. John writes that he works between 60 and 85 hours a week on the site. “Almost every waking hour is spent on rankings-related stuff.” he says. “I am at my desk seven days a week around 7 a.m. and stop working between 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.” This sounds like a recipe for disaster. His rankings — actually seasonal lists — are crucial to our sport. But less than 7 percent of the data is input by athletes. The rest is stuff he harvests and uploads. So now’s a good time for a reality check.
Anselm LeBourne’s IAAF challenge just got steeper. British media are reporting that David Heath smashed one of the oldest masters records on the books when he clocked 4:02.33 for 1500 at a French meet, lowering the listed WR of 4:05.2 by Australia’s Tom Roberts in 1984. A heart-attack survivor who turned 50 in May, David is likely the youngest entrant in the Beijing worlds exhibition 800. “As previously detailed in the Lynn News, at the start of the year the 50-year-old targeted the world records for 800, 1500 and 5000,” says the paper. “In March he ran 2:01.74 to secure one of the nine places for the 800m. He has since run 1:59.61 and is within a second of the world M50 record.” Yowza! Guy has game.
World record-holder Myrle Mensey, a recent masters Hall of Fame inductee, is an inspiration to more than the kids she mentors. She also moves her mom to compete. Last Saturday, Myrle’s mother, Daisy Edwards, entered three events at the Missouri State Senior Games in Columbia. Daisy is 89, but since she’ll be 90 at the end of the year, she’s W90 under Senior Olympic rules. “It’s awesome,” Myrle told the local paper. “I remember the first year we came here, three years ago, and I said ‘Mama, the record in the shot put of women 85-89 is like 10 feet, I know you can throw further then 10 feet.’ She said, ‘OK’ and I almost fell on the floor.” Saturday was Daisy’s third year competing in field events, having no prior experience before 2013.
Lyndon Herzberg, my favorite mystery of masters track, made a splash five years ago when he posted a 100-meter seed time of 11.26 as a 56-year-old. But he rarely shows up at meets, and his single mark on mastersrankings.com is a 15.04. Now guess what? He’s baaaaccck! According to the M60 entry list at this weekend’s New York Association USATF meet at Icahn Stadium, Lyndon entered a “qualifying” mark of 11.86. The listed world record is Ron Taylor’s epic 11.70 of 1994. I suspect that someone other than Lyndon is using his name as a prank. To test this theory, I’ve written the company where Lyndon works in Southern California. (I ran a poll in 2010, too) In any case, if you happen to be at the Randall’s Island meet Saturday, take a picture of Mr. Herzberg. I’d love to share an image of the gent — our answer to Bigfoot.
For my 61st birthday this week, I’ve treated myself to a WordPress plugin called Give. It allows friends of this site to make donations. So now I’ve shed my shyness about asking for money. Even with my Cafepress store and Google ads, I’ve done little to monetize masterstrack.com. The store, created by my son a decade ago, makes a pittance. The Google ads are gone for technical reasons. Because I’m still looking for full-time work, I’ve decided to leverage mcom — which gets 30,000 page views a month. You can give via PayPal (my preference) or check.
Local TV reports that Carol Frost, 70, of Ashland, Nebraska, set two American records and one world record at the Iowa Senior Games June 13 in West Des Moines, Iowa. “In the javelin, Frost again crushed her American competition, breaking the 500g record by almost 40 feet with a throw of 91 feet 5 5/8 inches (27.88 meters). This throw also beat the world record set in 2014 by nearly 6 feet. In the shot put, Frost broke the American record by more than 5 feet, throwing 34 feet 9 inches (10.59 meters). Competing in the discus competition, Frost more than doubled any other throw on the day, with a new American record of 100 feet 3 3/4 inches (30.58 meters). This bested the previous record by nearly 18 feet.”
Masters Hall of Famer Larry Stuart was the Steve Prefontaine of masters track. Unhappy with how the sport treated him, he raised his voice and quit in 2003 — despite his chances of setting world age-group records to the end. USC officials Monday confirmed his death after an anonymous comment on a Trojan track fan website. A brief bio was posted. Larry “died of cancer at the Sand Canyon Hospital in Irvine, Calif., on June 6. He was 77 years old,” said USC, where he was a team captain. World-ranked many times, he would have been an Olympic medal contender in 1964 and 1968. But injuries and a dental issue dashed his Tokyo and Mexico City dreams. But he kept in the game and set many masters world records, after setting an all-time PR of 281-11 at age 32. He was famed as a coach and mentor who shared his spear knowledge with anyone who asked.
WMA this month updated its world record lists, and four Americans are in the mix. But it should be at least eight — with Kathy Bergen’s W75 high jump, Christel Donley’s W80 indoor hurdles, John Trautmann’s M45 indoor mile and several by W80Irene Obera added. Yanks listed are M45 Allen Woodard (400), M40 Bernard Lagat (a bunch), M55 Anselm LeBourne (1500) and W50 Renee Shepherd (60). I’ve also learned that Kip’s 3:54.91 mile at Millrose had a 1500 split of 3:40.20, beating the listed M40 indoor record of 3:44.12 by Britain’s Anthony Whiteman in 2012. Paperwork is being submitted to USATF, I’m told. Bernard’s 3K split en route to 5K record also is listed by WMA. Several records were news to me, especially Rosalind Tabor’s 6:06.58 mile for W50 set May 4, 2015, in London. (I see no local coverage.) But three recent WRs by Russian Vyacheslav Shabunin are not listed in the June 1 update. So as I’ve said again and again: Don’t trust WMA records.
Organizers of the inaugural Americas Masters Games have launched a shell of a website for the event set August 27 — September 4, 2016. They have a companion Facebook page. “We are very excited to inform the Masters sport community and our partners about the incredible opportunity to compete in the Games next summer and the chance to experience the unique beauty and many attractions of Vancouver,” said Thomas Jones,event director. Jones, 58, is a 1984 volleyball Olympian. Where will track be? Don’t know yet. “As we get closer to Games time, and we have a better sense of the participant numbers, we will post the final venue locations and capacity to our site, along with transportation links and maps.” Fees? Ditto. “The registration costs will be finalized soon and posted to the website.” Under Athletics, we read: “Competition formats, dates, age groups and more are currently being developed.” Of course, 2016 is a WMA worlds year, with Perth, Western Australia, hosting the meet October 26-November 6. USATF masters nationals in 2016 are in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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...]
