Archive for October, 2009
2009 world rankings posted, revealing potential USA record
Martin Gasselsberger of Austria has posted his 2009 masters rankings — combining world indoor and outdoor season lists — at his ever-amazing site, mastersathletics.net. While skimming the lists, I noticed at least one potential American age-group record. It’s the W35 5000-meter run. The listed American record is 15:15.2 by Francie Larrieu back in 1988. But […]
October 18, 2009
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Bradstock gets IAAF permission to compete for Brits in 2012
Roald Bradstock, a naturalized American citizen who has competed in seven Olympic Trials and two Games, has received IAAF permission to throw again for his native country, Britain. His goal: London 2012. The news came yesterday from Pierre Weiss, IAAF general secretary. In an email, Pierre wrote: “Dear Athlete, We have studied your request and […]
October 17, 2009
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WMG cancels ocean swim event, fearing water was too cold
Glad this didn’t happen to us! Aussie news site reports: “Hundreds of open water swimmers were left boiling mad by a decision to cancel their World Masters Games race because the water was too cold. Many slammed the ruling as ‘crazy’ and ‘unbelievable’ as they stormed off from the Sydney Harbour starting point, where one […]
October 16, 2009
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Race walkers given runaround in directions to WMG course
As mentioned earlier, entrants at the World Masters Games have encountered problems finding their venues. (Fun fact: the track meet isn’t being held inside the Sydney Olympic stadium but at the adjacent practice track, I’m told.) Race walkers are the most recent victims. Stefan Waltermann passed along a translation of a post on Annette Koop’s […]
October 16, 2009
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3 Comments
Results botched at WMG? M60 champ robbed of 5 meters
Tom Fahey, our perennial national discus champion, is a connossieur of fine track meets. He knows how things are supposed to be run. Usually that includes posting the correct results. Duh. But that didn’t happen to him at the World Masters Games. Tom sent me three photos showing that he had better distances than the […]
October 16, 2009
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22 Comments
Shuttle bus from Seattle to Kamloops in the works for worlds
Robert Thomas, the M40 world 400-meter champ at Lahti, has found a way to save big money on Kamloops travel: Find a flight to Seattle and hop a chartered shuttle bus! Robert writes: “I took the liberty of contacting a charter bus company to see what it would cost from Seattle to Kamloops (site of […]
October 16, 2009
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11 Comments
Sportswriter covering Sydney WMG leaps to conclusions
I’m Olga Kotelko’s biggest fan. But I don’t exaggerate her credits. No need for that. Not so with Lisa Martin, a sportswriter in Australia who profiled Olga in the Brisbane Times today. Lisa wrote: “At 90-years-old, Canadian Olga Kotelko is the oldest known long jump competitor in the world.” Well, no. My own city, San Diego, […]
October 16, 2009
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One Comment
Dirty little secret of World Masters Games revealed in story
A site called Monsters and Critics has posted this little article. The headline tells it all: Cost decisive factor for many athletes at World Masters Games. So tell me something I don’t know. Of course, with all the hoohah celebrating the supergeezers and the economic impact of World Masters Games, few articles discuss whether these […]
October 16, 2009
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6 Comments
Belated spring cleaning for mastershistory.org WMA results
Our museum of masters track — mastershistory.org — had some dust bunnies and broken links. So I did some housecleaning tonight on the WAVA/WMA results page. It’s easier now to tell what you’re clicking on. I added meet dates, for example. And you have several options for seeing the same thing — you can view […]
October 15, 2009
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3 Comments
Maxwell Springer dies at 95; Hall of Famer and world champ
Maxwell Springer, who competed as recently as August, suffered a fatal stroke on Sunday, October 11, I’ve been informed. He was 10 days short of 96. This is a great loss to our tribe. Former WMA Vice President Rex Harvey, who shared the sad news, wrote: “He was a fine man and conducted himself with […]
October 14, 2009
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18 Comments