Archive for January, 2014

National Masters News sold to Amanda Scotti and Tish Ceccarelli

Randy Sturgeon, recovering from cancer, has sold National Masters News to W55 national champion sprinter Amanda Scotti and W55 runner Tish Ceccarelli. That’s the word from Amanda, a veteran NMN staffer, who writes: “We have both worked there for a number of years so the transition has been pretty smooth. We’re both terribly excited to be […]

January 18, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  9 Comments

M100 is the new M80: Japanese sprinter is 2.3 faster than Bolt

Legend has it that 106-year-old Larry Lewis, a San Francisco waiter, ran 100-yard sprints as exhibitions under 18 seconds. His marks never made it to the record books. But M100 sprinters aren’t as rare as you’d think, and the latest sizzling centenarian is Miyazaki “Golden Bolt” Hidekichi, a Japanese gent who says he’d like to […]

January 17, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  4 Comments

Brain tumor can’t stop John Wall: Aussie sprint champ barrels on

John Wall is my newest hero. He’s an Australian M65 sprinter who two years ago was preparing to die. According to an amazing story in The Daily Telegraph: “After the operation, and the diagnosis was what is was [a malignant brain tumor], I resigned myself to the fact I was going to die,” John said […]

January 16, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Should athletes have say on 2-day or 1-day USATF region meets?

Mark Cleary is USATF West Region coordinator, an appointed post that puts him in charge of the masters championships for the states of California, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona. In July 2010, I noted complaints of some athletes to Mark’s insistence on holding two-day regional meets. Mark defends it (despite its extra cost) as […]

January 16, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  14 Comments

India’s masters nationals a ‘qualifying meet’ for Asian regionals?

Wasn’t this resolved? I’ve reported about the insane dueling federations of India. But a report in The Times of India labels the national masters championships Feb. 24 “the selection trials for the 18th Asian Masters Athletics Championships.” Sigh. We’re a sport where everyone can run, right? (It’s in the WMA Constitution.) Does that mean pay-to-play […]

January 15, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Book review: ‘What Makes Olga Run?’ could revolutionize society

Call it Aerobics 2.0. If boomers (and their parents) start rolling wine bottles under their backs at 3 a.m., drain the market of Sudoku puzzles and take up the Western roll, we’ll have Bruce Grierson to thank. Olga Kotelko, too. Five decades after Ken Cooper’s call to action fueled the running boom, “What Makes Olga […]

January 14, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  11 Comments

Touching base with Tor Aanensen: Inner athlete ‘alive and well’

On Christmas Eve, I posted a 1996 story about Norwegian distance runner Tor Aanensen. A few days later, author Stephen Seiler found Tor’s phone number and called him. Here’s the report: “He is 73 years old now. We had a nice conversation and he is obviously both clear in his head and still fit physically. But in […]

January 13, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Margaret Peters claims W80 WR for 200 meters at Oceania meet

World champion Margaret Peters of New Zealand won the 60 (into a stiff wind), 100 and 200 at the Oceania Masters Athletics Championships in Bendigo, Australia, and may have been disappointed in her 19.2 hand-time for the 1. She made up for it Saturday, however, by blasting a 10-year-old W80 world record for the deuce. […]

January 12, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

WMA throws out javelin specs, records for W60, W65 and W70

Starting this year, women 60-74 will throw the 500-gram javelin instead of the 400-gram spear, thanks to approval of an Australian proposal at Porto Alegre worlds. USATF adopted the new specs at the Indy annual meeting, and Jerry Bookin-Weiner says he is writing about this and other implement changes for National Masters News. In response […]

January 11, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  9 Comments

Discount Team USA hotel in the works for Budapest worlds

Gary Snyder, USATF national masters chair, reports that he’s in final arrangements with USATF Indy HQ for a Team USA hotel at Budapest worlds in March. “Plan is to announce the final details on Thursday, January 16th, for booking through an agency,” he writes. “Very nice hotel about 15 minutes from the track via the […]

January 10, 2014   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment