Archive for November, 2009
Pekka Viippo tells why he doped before Lahti world meet
Pekka Viippo may be a cheater, but at least he’s an honest cheater. As noted here three days ago, Pekka got a two-year competition ban after testing positive for bad stuff at the Lahti world masters meet in August. Pekka, an M45 thrower, gave an interview to a Finnish reporter, and I’ve been sent a […]
November 10, 2009
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Masters trio launching Northern California throwers club
Three Northern California masters throwers are starting what M50 founder Randy Wilson calls “a new club for throwers to unite the region.” He reports: “We expect to have over 100 members as soon as we launch in January 2010. If you know this area, you are aware of the talent we have to draw from. […]
November 9, 2009
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Sprinting is 100% harder than expected for M60 newbie
An interesting story about M60 sprinter Homer Guerrero shared his hopes for a track comeback after a 40-year break. He told a reporter in San Marcos, Texas, that he was in shape for a 13-flat 100-meter dash. “My goal is to bring back the gold,” Homer told the San Marcos Record. “I’m 100 percent sure […]
November 8, 2009
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Lahti silver medalist gets 2-year ban for doping violation
On October 23, Finnish media reported a doping violation at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Lahti. (I saw it for the first time tonight, sorry.) WMA and the Koops’ site in Germany now are reporting the punishment meted out. Here’s the brief WMA report on M45 Finnish shot putter Pekka Viippo, the silver-medal winner, being […]
November 7, 2009
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Latest time-suck: Boston indoor nationals goes Facebook
Mike Travers, co-meet director of the 2010 masters indoor nationals in Boston along with trusty veteran Steve Vaitones, reports on our Forum: “Check us out on Facebook!” Here’s the link (if you’re a Facebooker). Although I belong to all major social networks, I don’t do much with my accounts. It’s mission creep. Don’t need yet […]
November 7, 2009
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Masters vaulter Boyce stars in wild-and-crazy YouTube clips
Don’t do this at home. This YouTube video making the rounds shows a vaulter named Andrew Boyce, 44, fetching an errant Frisbee at his home in Illinois. It was posted in August, about a month after Oshkosh nationals, where he went 1.90 (6-2 3/4) and 4.10 (13-5 1/4) in the M40 high jump and vault, and 6.31 […]
November 6, 2009
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Masters floppers can benefit from high jump curve calculator
Floppers over forty, take note. Peter Hlavin, my Lahti housemate, writes that former NCAA high jumper Todd Acheson “has created what I believe is the first high jump curve calculator that is available to the general public on the Internet. . . . This . . . would be a valuable tool for masters jumpers. […]
November 5, 2009
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What’s next? Masters on the cover of National Enquirer?
Another breakthrough for our niche. We made People magazine! Yes, in the same issue that covers Jon and Kate, Zac and Vanessa and Brad Pitt, we see W100 thrower Ruth Frith and M80 vaulter Hiroshi Miyamoto — doing their World Masters Games thing in a double-page photo spread. This season already included Nadine O’Connor featured […]
November 4, 2009
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USA masters indoor nationals results posted 1975-present
Another coup for mastershistory.org, our USATF-sponsored masters museum. Thanks to National Masters News publisher Randy Sturgeon (who gave permission), most all results from the U.S. national masters indoor championships are now online. (See them here.)  The first meet’s results, in 1974, are missing. So are 1976 and 1979. But we now have results from 1975, 1977, 1978 […]
November 3, 2009
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Masters racewalk records chair takes backseat to nobody
Bev McCall According to this post on a racewalk message board, Bev McCall is in charge of masters racewalk records. And she’s taking her job seriously enough to ask for help in vetting marks on the USATF records page. We learn: “Please take some time (especially if you or someone you know broke a record […]
November 2, 2009
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