Archive for April, 2007

Masters giant Lad Pataki dies at 60; memorial set

Olympian Ed Burke has shared this sad news: “It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of the passing of our friend and comrade in sport, Dr. Ladislav Pataki. A memorial will be held on Wednesday , April 11, 2007 at 2 p.m . Location is Oakhill Cemetery, 300 Curtner, San Jose. Chapel […]

April 6, 2007   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

Site up for USATF masters deca/hep championships

Bill Murray, a world-class M50 decathlete and high jumper, gives us a heads up on the Web home of this summer’s USATF National Masters Decathlon/Heptathlon Championships. The event is June 9-10 at Spain Park High School in Hoover, Alabama. Bill appears to be in charge of the event. He must likes a challenge. He’s the […]

April 6, 2007   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

400-meter man Ben James proves tougher than cancer

Anyone who’s ever seen Ben James run the quarter knows he’s tough. We didn’t know the half of it. While others were sweltering in Charlotte last August, he was sweating his own mortality — having just learned he had non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a form of cancer. Columnist Peter Glavin of the Messenger Post newspaper wrote a […]

April 6, 2007   Posted in: Uncategorized  15 Comments

YouTube shows age-graded handicap 200 in Texas

Hey, we can YouTube, too! M55 sprinter Rick Riddle provides a link to a 3-minute video featuring introductions and the race of seven masters sprinters, ages 42 to 70, at a March 31 meet at University of Texas-Arlington. What a show! Rick takes the race, but the masters movement is the big winner. This shows […]

April 5, 2007   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Nolan Shaheed shows Rono how far he has to go

Henry Rono ran the Carlsbad 5000 on Sunday, and got the main masters ink and photo coverage, but Nolan Shaheed of Pasadena quietly went about his business of kicking butt in the M55 age group, finishing a quarter-mile ahead of Henry, the former Kenyan distance God aiming for a world record in the mile this […]

April 4, 2007   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Celeb politicos hail Bob Weiner on 60th birthday

Happy birthday to runner Bob Weiner, our mediameister! Today he enters the M60 age group. Over the weekend, Bob had a party that included the reading of well wishes from such masters no-names as Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and one of Bob’s longtime clients — retired Gen. (and U.S. drug czar) Barry McCaffrey. Bob not […]

April 3, 2007   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

Carla Hoppie serves up details on talented family

Carla Hoppie of the mom-and-son track pair in Oregon struck gold in Boston last week, winning the W50 pentathlon at nationals. Not long after returning, she completed a questionnaire I sent her a few weeks ago in the middle of exams at Eastern Oregon University. Here she confirms that she’ll compete at the Riccione world […]

April 2, 2007   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

USATF invites YOUR picks for Masters AOY awards

The problem is age-old: Masters pick and announce Athletes of the Year (and top age-groupers) in a rushed process every December at the USATF annual meeting. The result? The winners are never present to soak up the love. Enter Dave Clingan and a long-overdue fix. Dave is the new USATF Masters T&F Awards Committee chairman, […]

April 1, 2007   Posted in: Uncategorized  17 Comments