Archive for December, 2008

Canadian’s track comeback — 51 years after last meet

Gotta love this. Joe Koza of Saskatchewan resumed track competition a couple years ago. His previous meet? Back in 1955. A local paper reported: “Two years ago, Joe and Marilyn were asked to compete in the dancing competition at a provincial seniors games. Marilyn wasn’t interested so Joe thought, ‘Why not track?’ “All I was […]

December 14, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  5 Comments

102-year-old spearchucker featured in London Times

Reporting from Japan on the longevity of folks there, a British writer has a nice story that opens with this: “Like most outstanding athletes, Takashi Shimokawara has an unvaryingly strict regimen of training and exercise. It begins before breakfast with stretches and bends. A brief jog is followed by press-ups, squat thrusts and horizontal leg […]

December 13, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Recordman Sorensen looking strong on comeback trail

Jim will skip this weekend’s club XC nationals in Spokane. Last we heard from Jim Sorensen, he was trying to forget an injury-plagued 2008 after an amazing 2007 that saw him set a bunch of M40 middle-distance records. Now the latest: He recently ran 15:04 in a road 5000, averaging 4:51 (corrected from original) per […]

December 12, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

USATF lawyers move against masterstrackchallenge.com

On Monday morning, masters around the country received this note from an M55 sprinter in Fairfield, Ohio: “My name is Michael Daniels, a masters runner like many of you. I mostly compete in Ohio and Kentucky. When I am not injuried (sic) I go to one or more national meets. How would you like to […]

December 11, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  10 Comments

Remembering Bob Fine: a masters track founding father

Bob was happy in his USATF element: the 2006 annual meeting in Indianapolis. (This report originally appeared on Masters Athlete Daily online. Thanks for your contributions!) Reno’s daily newspaper and local TV stations treated it like another traffic fatality — a jogger, 77, was killed while crossing a major artery in the pre-dawn darkness. The […]

December 10, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Shuttle hurdle relays returning to nationals — at Oshkosh

Jeff Davison wants to change the world — one hurdle relay at a time. An M50 hurdler from Laguna Hills, California, Jeff has a passion for the shuttles, which he (and I) loved running as preps. Mostly unknown outside the United States, this back-and-forth event is being positioned for world masters acceptance. That’s the plan. […]

December 10, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  22 Comments

Joetta Clark-Diggs gets USATF masters record! Wrongly

Four-time Olympian Joetta Clark-Diggs ran her 800 PR in 1998 — a nifty 1:57.84 when she was 36. Last week she got credit for an American age-group record. Nice. The audacity of hope! Also a perversion of history. Her sister-in-law Jearl Miles Clark ran 1:57.27 at age 37 at a little meet in Athens in […]

December 9, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  7 Comments

Reno wrapup: Odds and ends affecting masters track

Gotta head to the airport in a few minutes. My reports from the USATF annual meeting have barely scratched the surface. I have two notebooks filled with tidbits I have yet to disgorge. So here are some quick highlights. USATF Masters might promote an idea used in other sports: one-day memberships in USATF. This means […]

December 7, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Reno report: Hinton, Glynn records among the rejects

As expected, John Hinton’s M45 indoor mile and Kay Gynn’s W55 outdoor pole vault mark — which both bettered listed world records — were rejected as American age-group records. Today’s general session of USATF (which I didn’t attend since I was sleeping in) theoretically could have reversed the USATF Records Committee and Sandy Pashkin’s recommendation […]

December 7, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  3 Comments

Reno report: Masters chair Gary Snyder to launch a blog

Gary Snyder, elected to a four-year term as USATF Masters T&F chairman, says he’ll start keeping a blog sometime in January. This is huge. Although Gary and previous national chairs have been reachable by email and have written columns for National Masters News, this new means of communication takes openness to a new level. Gary […]

December 7, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments