Canadian Masters Athletics has announced the winners of its 2014 Athletes of the Year awards. See formal announcement. Sprint great Karla Del Grande is the top trackster. But touching is the choice for top fieldster — Olga Kotelko, who died almost a year ago at age 95 after setting Budapest worlds afire. CMA has named its awards after their legends, and Olga’s name graces the award she’s won posthumously. Now wouldn’t it be nice if WMA named its IAAF Best Women’s Masters Award for Olga? (Correction: The idea has been broached for an over-80 award.) Meanwhile, CMA says: “The official presentations to each of the winners will take place on the track at the CMA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, on Saturday, July 18, 2015, at St, Catharines, Ontario, or at the Athletics Canada Pan Am Alumni Party, being held on Friday evening, July 24, 2015, at Vaughan, Ontario, or at another suitable occasion chosen by the winner.”
Quarter-miler Sanya Richards modeled Beijing uniform in 2008. Arm wraps are extra?
USATF emailed Lyon-goers Thursday on how to get their free Nike uniforms. “Each registrant will receive a complimentary uniform top for competition for the 2015 World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships in Lyon, France, from August 4 – August 16,” said this sign-up form, which screamed (in all caps) “PLEASE COMPLETE THIS FORM PRIOR TO JUNE 30 TO ENSURE DELIVERY TO YOUR MAILING ADDRESS PRIOR TO LEAVING FOR FRANCE.” The note from Indy said, in part: “We appreciate your patience in this uniforming process, but are happy to announce the details to go about requesting your competition piece. Per WMA rules, all athletes must wear an official USA uniform top during competition. WMA officials have notified USATF that this uniform top rule will be strictly enforced throughout the competition. USATF will be supporting it’s [sic] WMA competitors this summer by providing this competition piece free of charge. … Please note that the inventory reflected on the USATF Online Store is not necessarily indicative of the available pieces for WMA competitors – we have reserved many sizes and styles specifically for this event.” Great! Let us know how the process goes.
At 80, Lynne Hurrell has been a road ace for years. She ran a stellar 2:21:20 half-marathon last year and a U.S. record road 5K in February. But Lynne tried the 800 and 1500 at the recent USATF Pacific Association meet, and I think she’s found her niche. She clocked 3:56.31 and 7:39.05 to smash the listed American records of 4:09.77 by the late Gerry Davidson in 2001 and 8:32.02 by Thelma Wilson at 2011 Sacramento worlds. (The listed W80 world records are 3:43.62 and 7:25.50.) Lynne runs for Trkac Racing Team. Not a typo. (“Trkac” is Croatian for runner.) And yes, Lynne is entered in Lyon meet. “The day her 81st birthday rolls around, Hurrell will be competing alongside her daughter and 12 other Trkac team members in the World Masters Athletics Championships in Lyon, France,” we learn from a local paper. Watch out, world. Lynne comin’ atcha!
Jerry Bookin-Weiner, USATF masters throws coordinator, asks in the June issue of National Masters News whether the weight of the superweight be changed from 56 pounds to 20 kilograms (44 pounds) in the M50 and M55 age groups. He notes that this “uniquely American event” goes against the usual practice of lighter implements when you turn 50. (Currently, 44-pound superweights kick in starting at age 60. The event drops to 35-pounders at 70 and 25-pounders at 80.) So he wrote in his “Throwers Circle” column: “2015 is a ‘rules year’ within USATF,” and called for thoughts “pro and con or in between” on changing the M50 and M55 superweight to 44 pounds. He can be contacted at throwsguy@gmail.com. You also can post a comment here and take our poll. Here’s an M45 guy throwing a 56-pound weight.
In March, Kathy Bergen became the oldest woman to jump 4 feet (1.22 meters) when she did the feat at an indoor meet. So it was only a matter of time when she duplicated the 4-footer outdoors. That came Saturday at the Pasadena Senior Games, when she cleared cleanly on her first try — and had a great effort at 1.25 (4-1 1/4). I was fortunate to record the jumps at Caltech, and the resulting video shows how Kathy, 75, is just like any kid setting a season PR. But trust me, meet managers including Andy Hecker (seen helping measure the 1.22 bar) did all they could to get record forms filled out. Meet officials don’t grow on trees, and neither do masters records. Kathy also was interviewed several weeks earlier at the Striders meet. See that video here.
Meet director Christel Donley with son. She lives in Colorado and comes out every year for this meet.
At the Pasadena Senior Games, a young man named Eric Goldfarb was interviewing entrants and using some fancy video gear to shoot events. He focused especially on M85 sprinter Don “Doc” Cheek. Eric says he’s been working on the doc for three years. It will include folks in other sports, including a lady boxer. Saturday’s meet also was notable for the use of a swimmer-style starting gun. It made a beep instead of a bang. Meet organizers said they chose this style of gun because it made less noise. They’ve had issues with neighbors complaining about gunshot noise, so this was a compromise. I was told that any records set were eligible with the beep-gun, since it was tied to an autotiming system and underwent the zero control test. In any case, here’s my photo gallery, which includes shots of high jump, discus, sprints and meet director Christel Donley and her son, Nils. They did a great job, as always.
Don Cheek, running the 50, was followed around by video cameras.
Running at the masters-friendly Music City Distance Carnival, Sonja Friend-Uhl took sixth in the women’s invitational mile Saturday and beat a record by the legendary Alisa Harvey. Sonja, 43, clocked a 4:45.68 to better the listed W40 American outdoor record of 4:46.29 by Alisa in 2006. Sonja set the W40 indoor mile WR of 4:44.81 in 2012. Via Facebook, Sonja of the Atlanta TC described her race to me: “First lap was 72/73 (71 for 400m), then 2:23/2:24, 3:33 (69-second third lap). The lead runners opened up on this lap and my goal was to really phentermine no prescription focus on 800-1200 so this was good!) 71/72 for last lap.” Meet director Dave Milner announced the record attempt at the starting line, which added to Sonja’s butterflies. But she delivered! She’s entered in the masters 3000 exhibition at Eugene open nationals June 27, and she’ll compete at Jacksonville masters nats as well. The W40 all-time best remains 4:23.78 by Russia’s Yekatarina Podkopayeva in 1993. The Music City meet (in Nashville, of course) saw Brad Barton’s steeple record and Tony Whiteman’s mile record. So it was a perfect venue for Sonja. Nice run, champ.
Kathy Bergen raised her own pending W75 world record in the high jump Saturday at the Pasadena Senior Games at Caltech. Minutes later, Irene Obera lowered her own W80 American record in the 400. Kathy cleared 1.22 meters (4-0) on her first try before missing at 1.25 (4-1 1/4), barely missing once (saying she hit the bar with her elbow). She’ll get it eventually. Irene gave the 4 every ounce of strength (and it showed). Her time was 1:34.53 (worth 49.9 on the Age-Graded Tables). (See results here.) But she crushed her own listed AR of 1:39.92 from 2014 Winston-Salem nationals. (The listed WR remains 1:31.21 by Italy’s Emma Mazzenga.) Meanwhile at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California, Jeff “Mr. Shuttle Hurdles” Davison ran the 110-meter hurdles with 42-inch barriers in 22.74 seconds at the Jim Bush open meet (in a race won in 13.39). That’s an unofficial record for age 57. (See results.) Video of Kathy’s jump will be posted soon, plus a meet photo gallery.
Irene guts out last yards of 400-meter dash at Pasadena Senior Games.
“After a thorough warmup during the 2 1/2 hour drive from Bavaria to Freienbach, Switzerland, in our nonclimatised car, I enjoyed perfect conditions at the pituresque Chrummen stadium in lovely 32 degrees Celsius.” So begins Irie Hill’s description of her meet a few days ago in which she raised the W45 vault record to 3.65 meters (11-11 3/4). That raised her own listed WR of 3.62 (11-10 1/2) set last year. After getting the picture below from my Swiss friend Pino Pilotto, I wrote Irie, 46, for details. She continued: “Having only had two outdoor vaulting sessions so far, my 14 stride run-up (7 lefts) increased 3 feet during the comp. 3.30m and 3.50m were dealt with swiftly and efficiently and the new age-group world record height of 3.65m was cleared on the third attempt under the watchful eye of the ever helpful and competent Swiss judges. 3,75m (12-3 1/2) proved too high for my trusty 13-foot pole.”
Frank Heffter photo of Irie jumping WR 3.65 in Freienbach, Switzerland.
The folks who make it possible for us to run, jump and throw need help themselves sometimes. USATF is calling for helpers at our Jacksonville nationals, and Texas meet director Seth Brower needs a hand at the dec-hep masters nationals. Seth writes that he’s hosting the USATF Masters Combined Event Nationals at UTSA on June 27-28. And since it’s in competition with local AAU meets, bodies are short. “But hoping officials will see it’s a good thing to have a national meet on your resume, albeit just the Dec and Hep. Also need regular volunteers to help on the crews.” Officials can sign up here. Volunteers can sign up here. Meanwhile, USATF sent this note to the officials’ email list: “The L.O.C. for the USATF 2015 Masters Outdoor Championships and the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships at the University of North Florida are in a need of officials for both meets.”
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...]
