Archive for September, 2009

W90 superstar Olga Kotelko continues her world record romp

Olga Kotelko just kills me. She claims at least 15 world records in the run-up to Lahti, sets eight WRs there, and then what?  She goes and sets some more a couple weekends ago at the British Columbia Senior Games in Richmond. Her most notable WR at Minoru Park was in the 400-meter dash. She […]

September 24, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

David O’Meara’s next mile odyssey: world tour in 30 minutes

David O’Meara David O’Meara, who prefers asphalt to Mondo for his miles, recently finished a second summer of road races and achieved his goal: 27 mile runs (a little over a marathon) in a total time under 2 hours, 11 minutes. All but one were sub-5.  In fact, his cumulative clocking was about 2:07. His […]

September 23, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Pyramid 5K aims to benefit track at masters-friendly school

Everyone who’s competed at Long Beach State since 1995 knows the Pyramid — a dramatic blue-glass arena rising majestically north of the track. But the track itself has gone to seed, and folks running at Sunday’s Self-Transcendence meet noted its sorry shape. But thanks to the power of the Pyramid, a resurfaced track could be possible. M45 […]

September 22, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  3 Comments

Introducing another major player: mastersathletics.info

Geoff Bramley of Brisbane, Australia, didn’t take baby steps when he conceived his marvelous masters Web site. He chose a domain name with grown-up ambitions: mastersathletics.info. Although the site launched last November, I wasn’t aware of it until he contacted me this month. And I immediately replied, calling his site “WONDERFUL!” And I sent some […]

September 22, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  5 Comments

Albert Erickson sets M80 world record — but only on paper

When (and if) Albert Erickson opened page 12 of September’s National Masters News, he must have been shocked. The lead item in Track Highlights said: “World Record Pole Vault at Seattle Classic” and reported how “Albert Erickson, M80, bettered the world and American pole vault marks for his age group with a 2.86 at the […]

September 22, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Nadine O’Connor’s encore: American record in debut 300H

Nadine O’Connor, the vault legend and world-record holder in the W65 100, has run hurdles before, “but never more than five,” she told me last night. Well, she’s no longer a long-hurdles virgin. Competing at Long Beach State University alongside Rita Hanscom, Linda Cohn and “a couple of guys,” Nadine yesterday ran the 300-meter hurdles […]

September 21, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  13 Comments

Sydney World Masters Games posts shorter entrants list

A few days ago, the list of track and field entrants at the Sydney World Masters Games mysteriously vanished from the site. Then suddenly a new list of entrants, dated Sept. 16,  was posted. Here it is — all 200 pages (in PDF format). Not sure what’s behind the update — except the original list, […]

September 20, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  3 Comments

Eurovets president once had secret life as redneck ranter

Dieter Massin When he’s not working behind the scenes to elect his friends to WMA offices, Dieter Massin of Germany holds sway over the Eurovets. He’s the president of the EVAA. But I recently learned that he’s something else: a formerly anonymous columnist who now writes a blog!  What’s not to like? Dieter (whose last […]

September 20, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

WMA distances self from IAAF’s stupid edict on starting age

Back in mid-August, around the time of the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, the IAAF Congress adopted a strange rule for masters nonstadia events (mainly road running) — that the starting age for masters is 40.  This was news to World Masters Athletics, which changed the opening men’s age group from 40 to 35 about […]

September 20, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  6 Comments

Roadie Bill Rodgers among Masters Hall of Fame nominees

Bill Rodgers is 61. Nine women and 16 men are nominees for the USATF Masters Hall of Fame, according to the ballot sent by Norm Green to his Hall of Fame subcommittee. The Class of 2009 will be selected by a group that includes previous inductees, and they’re expected to pick 10. The Class of 2009 […]

September 19, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  8 Comments