Archive for February, 2010

YouTube captures Wolfie Ritte’s joy after setting vault WRs

It’s a new world. Everything is on YouTube, including Wolfgang Ritte’s world record (actually two) set indoors last Sunday. Man, I wish I had a YouTube time machine so I could watch myself hurdling when I was 17!

February 10, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

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Added a new feature today. Display a blog entry and you’ll see five stars.  If you think an entry is tasteless, dumb or worthless — click Weak.  If it moves you, makes you laugh out loud or blows you away, check Classic.  Between these extremes are OK, good and great. Same for comments.  When you […]

February 10, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  4 Comments

Jimson Lee a quick study on masters sprint speed and slowing

Jimson Lee, a longtime British Columbia coach and M45 sprinter, apparently is now based in Rome, Italy. But his speedendurance.com blog remains a rich resource on long sprinting (the 200 and 400). He occasionally writes about masters sprinting, including this June 2009 discussion of “The Law of Attrition.”  Last week, he asked: “Why is there […]

February 10, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  7 Comments

Wolfgang Ritte ups M55 indoor vault WR to 4.51 (14-9 1/2)

A week after competing at the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Wolfgang Ritte found a local German meet — and raised his own world indoor record in the M55 vault by 11 centimeters. He jumped 4.51 (14-9 1/2) to beat his listed WR of 4.40 (14-5 1/4) set at the Eurovets meet last year […]

February 9, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  8 Comments

Christian Cushing-Murray clocks 4:23 mile in rare track foray

Christian Cushing-Murray is called Chris in his old IAAF bio, “Cush” by  friends and “Coach” by his track and cross country athletes at Foothill High School, where his son Nathaniel, a junior, runs.  “My daughter Jessica, currently a fairly successful youth runner, will be a freshman there next fall,” Cush says. What else can we […]

February 9, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

USATF press release spotlights masters stars entered at Kamloops

Tom Surber’s name is on the USATF press release, but I wrote the bulk of it (as a member of Bob Weiner’s Masters T&F Media Committee). If you spot any errors, my apologies. (And let me know the flubs.) Bob and I came up with 14 “U.S. stars to watch” — but we easily could […]

February 8, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  4 Comments

YouTube video by NSGA features some masters track stars

NSGA head kahuna Phil Godfrey opens a 3-minute, 40-second video promoting the National Senior Games — an easy way to spread the message. USATF has a similar project in the works (called “Forever Fast”). John Oleski of Boston is in charge of getting that video made and distributed nationwide, for use by masters at Rotary […]

February 8, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

Shabunin faster still at 3K! Lowers own indoor WR to 8:01.44

Despite finishing eighth, Russia’s  Vyacheslav Shabunin today improved his  M40 world indoor record for 3000 meters, clocking 8:01.44. This is about 200 meters short of two miles, so he’s averaging each mile in about 4:15. Incredible. The mark came at the Russian Winter Meet in Moscow, which is IAAF-sanctioned. (Results are here.) He beat his […]

February 7, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

Sorensen says Vyacheslav Shabunin on target to go sub-4

If anyone can appreciate the world-record spree of Vyacheslav Shabunin, it’s Jim Sorensen, the Northern California miler who had one of his own in 2007. After the Russian set his 1500 indoor WR, I wrote to Jim for his reaction. He admits: “It would be sad to see my (outdoor) record go.” But Jim knows […]

February 7, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  3 Comments

Teague takes Reebok masters mile; Lagat sets 5K record

Somewhat off the beaten track of exhibitions, the masters mile at today’s Reebok Boston Indoor Games was still a doozy. Results are here. Chris Teague held off Ray Puglsey, 4:29.05 to 4:29.43 as a dozen men dipped under 4:40 at the site of the indoor masters nationals next month. USATF reports that Chris “waited until […]

February 6, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  5 Comments