Archive for August, 2016
Club West Masters Meet back after 3 years — at Westmont College
Three years after its last edition, the fabled Club West Masters Track Meet is back. Long held at ocean-overlooking Santa Barbara City College and then UC Santa Barbara and Moorpark College, the event went dormant in 2014 and 2015 “as we sought a good venue at a reasonable cost,” says Robin Paulsen, Club West interim […]
August 23, 2016
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Belated praise for Jo Pavey: W40 WR 10K during Rio Games
Britain’s Jo Pavey was lapped early in the WR 10K at the Rio Games, but her 15th-place time of 31:33.44 was historic as well — a WMA W40 world record. Jo turns 43 in September. How good was her mark? It would have beaten the men’s world record in 1884, also by a Briton (Walter […]
August 22, 2016
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Masters history site adds thousands of original NMN color photos
The late Randy Sturgeon was publisher of National Masters News for eight years, and he honored the monthly’s history by safeguarding its treasured storehouse of photos. These images graced its pages (usually in black-and-white) for decades. Now many can be seen in their original full-color glory. Sunday night, I uploaded to mastershistory.org 108 PDFs representing […]
August 21, 2016
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Kip Lagat (briefly) wins bronze in 5000; Ruth Beitia keeps her gold
Wow, what a crazy night in Rio! The W35 Spanish high jumper wins a low-height contest on misses, and M40 Bernard Lagat takes sixth in the 5000, then is moved to third because of three DQs, then is moved to fifth after appeals. The IAAF noted: “As it was, Lagat finished fifth in 13:06.78 and […]
August 20, 2016
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M40 Belarussian wins silver in Rio hammer, but has doping past
M40 hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan of Belarus took silver in Rio, hitting 77.79 (255-2 1/2) on Friday. (The listed M40 WR is 82.23 by Igor Astapkovich.) Hope he tests clean this time. He’s had two positives in the past. It’ll be hard for another geezer to beat Ivan’s medal. But fellow fortysomethings Bernard Lagat and […]
August 19, 2016
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Taxpayers group rips World Masters Games $30,000 ‘junket’ to Rio
Auckland is hosting the 2017 World Masters Games, but that doesn’t mean New Zealand government-watchers are letting the LOC do anything it wants. Especially not wasteful spending. On Friday, Radio New Zealand reported how a press release slammed two managers from an Auckland Council agency for being on a weeklong trip to the Olympic Games […]
August 18, 2016
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Is Seb Coe feeding at the Kiwi World Masters Games trough?
In the olden days, WMA had a rule against promoting the rival World Masters Games, whose big meets were held in the same odd-numbered years. Now that WMA worlds are even-numbered years, it’s not as big a deal. But it’s still startling to learn that IAAF Prez Sebastian Coe is one of several Olympian ambassadors […]
August 17, 2016
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Ed Whitlock the Fearless Competitor: 800 was his first in many years
Who runs marathons at world-class levels and then challenges the world-record holder at 800 meters? Insane question, right? Well, it’s just another day at the office for M85 superhuman Ed Whitlock. In response to queries after his double WR weekend, Ed graciously satisfied my shameless curiosity on his half-mile: “It was my first 800m race […]
August 16, 2016
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M85 Ed Whitlock notches 2 more WRs at Canadian nationals
Two weeks ago, M85 distance god Ed Whitlock ran a world-record 5000 meters in 24:03.99 at the Ontario Masters Championships but missed the 1500 WR a few hours later by less than a second. Over the weekend at Canadian nationals (see results), Ed got it easily. He ran the metric mile in a stunning 6:38.23 […]
August 15, 2016
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Rio champion’s mom is Belgian masters heptathlon standout
At 2015 Lyon worlds, Danièle Denisty of Belgium was a DNF in the W45 heptathlon, doing the Day 1 events but not Day 2. Whatever disappointment she felt was nothing compared to the joy of watching her daughter win gold in the same event – at the Rio Olympic Games. As IAAF noted: Nafissathou Thiam’s […]
August 14, 2016
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