Archive for October, 2015

Jesse Owens biopic ‘Race’ could be best track movie of all time

The trailer is out for “Race,” the latest movie on wish-he-were M100 Jesse Owens. It appears to pull no punches. (I can’t wait to see how it depicts the 220-yard low hurdles world record of 1935.) And as one commenter said: “One of the coolest things about the Jesse Owens story is that Hitler had […]

October 21, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Mexican mess: Marco stunned by lifetime ban, alleges envy issue

Guillermo Guzmán Magaña, president of Mexican masters track, says M45 sprinter Marco Antonio Franco Díaz is part of a cancer. Marco counterfeits his times and makes money off his celebrity, the prez says. His allegations are in a letter of Sept. 21, 2014, banning Marco for 18 months. But Marco lives in California, and he […]

October 20, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Bergen, LeBourne, Obera named U.S. Masters Athletes of 2015

Anselm LeBourne has been named USATF Male Masters T&F Athlete of 2015, and Kathy Bergen and Irene Obera will share female honors after a year in which each set a half-dozen world records and won gold at Lyon. The USATF Masters Awards Committee informed them over the weekend, and reactions are coming in. For M55 […]

October 19, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  9 Comments

M40 triple jumper wins German lawsuit over Beijing Olympic snub

German media are reporting that former world-class triple jumper Charles Friedek has won a legal judgment against the German Athletics Federation worth possibly $150,000. Charles sued because he said he should have been on the 2008 Beijing Olympic team. He’s now 44, and masters blogger Alfred Hermes wrote Charles an open letter, urging his return […]

October 18, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Growing Bolder dissects jump comeback of Dr. Richard Konsens

Growing Bolder has a great video on M55 long jumper Richard Konsens, “who thought his track and field days were over when it was time to graduate into the ‘real world.’ In fact, on the day of his graduation from Dartmouth College, the Ivy League long-jumping champion went to the pits to take his last […]

October 17, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

Bill Deeter, the M65 thrower from Lyons, would have loved Lyon

Bill Deeter didn’t throw at Lyon. but he often throws in Lyons. That’s in Oregon [correction from earlier report]. Bill is the subject of a nice profile in a Salem, Oregon, paper. “In 2008 … Deeter’s former college track coach from Fresno Pacific University, Jerry Huhn, moved to the Salem area and showed him a […]

October 16, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  9 Comments

Dottie Gray sets a made-for-TV world record in W90 3000 meters

Last month, a producer with “CBS Sunday Morning” asked my help in finding some near-100 athlete they could feature on their show — in the wake of M100 Don Pellmann’s records in San Diego. They wanted to film someone setting a record. I gave her some names, and advised them to contact the National Senior […]

October 15, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

2 Mexicans hit with lifetime bans — for social media, bad behavior

Note to self: Urge WMA to set up a Twitter feed. That’s my take after the latest news blast. In a Wednesday post, WMA says: “Please take note that the two athletes below have been given ‘Life Time Bans’ by the Mexican Athletes Masters Commission (COMAM).” M45 sprinter Marco Antonio Franco Díaz and M65 racewalker […]

October 14, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  14 Comments

Runners-up told in World Best Masters voting: Obera and Carr

In a first for World Masters Athletics, the names of the top vote-getters for World Best Masters have been released. WMA Secretary Winston Thomas posted these lists Tuesday: After Germany’s Silke Schmidt came America’s Irene Obera, Australia’s Lavinia Petrie and Chile’s Marcela Barrientos. After Britain’s David Heath came Australia’s David Carr, Mexico’s Jose Luis Lopez […]

October 13, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

David Heath, Silke Schmidt named World Best Masters of 2015

W55 distancer Silke Schmidt of Germany and M50 middle-distance great David Heath of Great Britain have been named World Best Masters Athletes of 2015 by World Masters Athletics, according to a posting Monday on the Eurovets website. Kurt Kaschke, EMA president, wrote: “The decision of WMA for the Best Masters 2015 was sent out to […]

October 12, 2015   Posted in: Uncategorized  7 Comments