Archive for November, 2011

Danny Harris visits Striders; Valien gets Lifetime Achievement Award

Johnny Valien — recently crowned USATF Masters Athlete of the Year along with Flo Meiler — was further honored Saturday night at an Irvine, California, banquet room by her club of many years, the Southern California Striders. She won the club’s first Lifetime Achievement Award as a W85 superstar in pretty much every event. Watching […]

November 20, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

Robbins the ringer: CBS station unfairly embarrasses Frisbee kids

Steve Robbins, our M65 world sprint champ, was profiled the other day on his local Cleveland CBS station. Most of the segment was the usual oh-my-god-this-guy-is-fast-for-a-geezer tripe. That’s fine. All publicity is good. But then the reporter does something creative. He grabs three college kids playing Frisbee and says: Hey, would you race this 68-year-old […]

November 20, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  15 Comments

2012 World Masters Track Championships set for New Brunswick!

I’m not making this up. It’s on the Web, so it has to be true! Right? In a profile of a 33-year-old lady football player, the Telegraph-Journal newspaper in Canada says: “Besides the community support, Harlow said one of the deciding factors for the selection committee rested with the tournament’s planned venue: the refurbished Canada […]

November 18, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  6 Comments

Bendigo, Australia, to host 2014 Oceania Masters Championships

Bendigo, a town in southeast Australia, doesn’t have the profile of a Sydney or Brisbane, but it’s the host of the 2014 Oceania Masters Championships, a regional WMA meet. The announcement was made a couple days ago in the local newspaper. See it here. “The championships were last held in Papeete, Tahiti, in 2010 and […]

November 16, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

USATF Masters T&F Athletes of the Year: Shaheed, Meiler, Valien

Mary Trotto of the USATF Masters Awards Committee has announced the top masters track athletes of 2011: M60 middle-distancer Nolan Shaheed for men and W75 multi-eventers Flo Meiler (W75) Johnnye Valien (W85) for women. All great choices in an exceptionally amazing year for Americans, including Willie Gault in the sprints, Ralph Maxwell in the vault […]

November 16, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  18 Comments

Earl Fee’s new masterpiece a keeper—if only for tantric sex chapter

Earl Fee — he of the world records in long sprints, middle distances and hurdles — is a gentleman, a scholar — and a sex machine? His latest book, One Hundred Years Young the Natural Way, distills years of study in track and training and includes Chapter 30. It’s an eye-opener for honesty and courage. […]

November 14, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  10 Comments

W55 superstar photographer captures Obama yet again (my wife)

OK, this is totally gratuitous. But I can’t help but hail my wife’s photos of Barack and Michelle Obama (aka POTUS and FLOTUS). She was covering their arrival yesterday at North Island Naval Station near San Diego for the Carrier Classic basketball game on the USS Carl Vinson (the “Mission Accomplished” ship of Bush fame, […]

November 12, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  17 Comments

Uniform rules seeping into masters? Prepare to toe line on logos

Becca Gillespy Peter, the masters-friendly guru of polevaultpower.com, has written a note warning that “USATF, out of nowhere, decided they are going to enforce the IAAF Uniform Guidelines at Club Nationals. This was done without consultation or approval from the Club Council or the LOC. Initially this was going to apply to the masters athletes […]

November 11, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  23 Comments

Peter Taylor adds a Mendoza Line as way to rate masters nationals

Pete Taylor, besides being our go-to guy for announcing at masters nationals, is an epic stat nut. He’s always thinking. Here’s his latest contribution: “Baseball has its Mendoza Line to establish the threshold for incompetent hitting, and perhaps one can use the concept to describe the threshold for unacceptably low enrollment for outdoor nationals. A […]

November 8, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  34 Comments

Alison Regan tells about clearing vault fear in Forever Athletes video

Jessica Seyfert at Forever Athletes — who visited 2010 Sacramento masters nationals — sends word about the site’s new free eBook: Play for Life. Jessica writes: “This very cool multimedia book features the story of masters track and field athlete Alison Regan. She primarily does pole vault (as well as Ultimate Frisbee!). She was recently […]

November 6, 2011   Posted in: Uncategorized  3 Comments