When meet announcers finally become eligible for the Masters T&F Hall of Fame, Peter Taylor will be a first-ballot shoo-in. But in his latest report from the front, he’s a little forlorn, saying: “I didn’t have a very good meet at Landover, but I’m mature enough to accept that fact.” Of course, Bill Collins might say the same thing of his own efforts, since he suffered a rare loss in the 200 on Sunday to Oscar Peyton (by the slimmest of margins). Same for Nolan Shaheed, who lost another titanic 800-meter battle with his friend and rival Horace Grant. But when you’re in the elite ranks — of sprinting or announcing — small chinks loom large. Mere mortals would be thrilled with a silver at nationals. In this edition of his nationals report, however, Peter also reflects on the ongoing battle over how to ratify masters records. (BTW, videos from Landover are being posted here, including Val Barnwell’s amazing M50 WR in the 60.)

Here’s Peter Taylor’s latest postmortem on masters nationals:

Landover on My Mind

I didn’t have a very good meet at Landover, but I’m mature enough to accept that fact. I’m also old enough to know, however, that certain circumstances could explain my failure to “grade out” with a higher score. But first, I’m writing this on Sunday night, and I see there’s a complaint that I ignored the weights.

Because we had a field events announcer on the site for all 3 days from beginning to end, I won’t worry about that too much (I did the track events as well as some general announcements. The plan was that I would do no field events whatsoever, or at least I understood it that way).

 I found the sound system at Landover to be very, very difficult, and often I had to announce with a microphone that produced a rather thin sound.
In fact, I was actually shouting a lot on the second day. In addition, I got very little sleep either Thursday or Friday night. So I graded out at about a 63 for the meet, not very good but I won’t worry about that too much.

 The Meet

Landover had a lot of exciting events, and thus I have a variety of memories. Certainly, Joan Benoit Samuelson “made” the Friday program, as she unified the small crowd in her attempt to break theW50 3000 American mark. Joan really brought the thunder, and that was great to see.

 In the sprints, my man Aaron Thigpen needs a new name: I will call him “The Hardest-Working Man in the Sprinting Business.”
Aaron really put it down in the 60, absolutely hammering every step of the way and leaving former Washington Redskins star Ricky Ervins in his wake.

In the M50 60, Val Barnwell looked like an Olympian, exploding from the pack to win in world-record time. In the M45 hurdles, 1984 Olympian Karl Smith showed everyone what Olympic hurdling looks like. Canadian sprinter Karla Del Grande (W55) was stunning in every one of her races.
On Sunday we had the highly unusual experience of having consecutive races decided by 1/100 of a second (at least, that is what the scoreboard showed).

First, Oscar Peyton downed Bill Collins by 0.01 (in the M55 200), and then Val Barnwell beat Michael Waller by the same margin in the M50 200. Both races brought down the house, and this was tremendous for the atmosphere of the meet.
I should note that M70 sprinter Bob Lida is an absolute horse, simply staggering.

 In the high jump I was impressed by Kimiko Nakatake (W35), and in the long jump I thought that Aaron Sampson (M45) and Greg Petrosian (M50) were beyond impressive. I was glad to see that they got some attention (from our field events announcer).

The crowd was thin on Friday, very good on Saturday, and reasonably good on Sunday. All in all, a pretty good meet, with certain problems in terms of results that I will let others address. I will let others discuss the weights and the pole vault, as they were not my responsibility.

The Direction of the Masters Program

More generally, I think we’re at a crossroads in masters T&F in terms of the direction in which we are going. I find myself feeling that I’ve grown out of touch, that I’m old-fashioned in some ways.
Masters T&F relies on (A) a group of dedicated people who will work very hard to offer opportunities to our athletes, and (B) the athletes themselves, who train diligently and often produce great results.

Thus, we need to recognize and support both groups.
For example, Dave Johnson, the current director of the Penn Relays, and Tim Baker, his predecessor, have been great friends of the masters, offering opportunities not seen in earlier years.

One would think that masters T&F would be highly supportive of Dave Johnson at Penn, and one might even formally thank him every year for the chances he has given to masters to compete on a big stage.

Instead, we have challenged the Penn Relays to prove to the world (or at least to masters T&F) that the record times they list on the Internet are the correct ones, which some might find offensive. It has even gotten to the point of throwing a record out if Penn Relays did not provide the proof that the masters needed.

From my more traditional perspective, one might simply trust our friends, especially those at the Penn Relays, a meet with the highest reputation. And yet that has not been the case.
For example, in 2006, masters superstar Alisa Harvey was permitted to run in the open women’s mile, in which she finished eighth. The woman in front of her ran 4:45.64; the woman behind her ran 4:48.86.

Alisa was given an American record time of 4:46.29. Nothing to point to any kind of error, but rather than simply accepting the mark (which was accompanied by an application), masters T&F demanded “proof.”
I would never have challenged our friend (and in this case I have known Dave Johnson about 20 years), but again I seem to be old-fashioned in this respect.

In the case of the much-discussed Hartshorne Mile, Tom Hartshorne and Rick Hoebeke have donated thousands of hours of their time to make this the premier masters mile in North America.
Clearly, masters T&F has few friends who have done more than Tom and Rick have (and one can imagine a yearly expression of thanks to these two great gentlemen that would come from masters T&F.

And yet, as has been seen in “The Hinton Affair,” masters T&F thinks nothing of challenging Tom and Rick, to the point of throwing out two automatically timed and videotaped marks.
From my more traditional perspective, one does not do such things in the absence of clear error, but again my approach seems to be out of touch (at least by how things are done currently). I am in favor of modest standards for our nationals, but many are not.

I certainly accept that, but one must be aware of attracting newcomers who have competed in few meets and perhaps even in none.
I don’t want to even think about how many of these neophytes have come to our meets with high hopes, only to be “tossed out” of their events because they did not understand the rules of declaration, getting a hip number, etc.

One would think that masters T&F would design procedures to keep people from experiencing the despair of getting “tossed,” but so far I have seen nothing. Thus, I again get the feeling that life has passed me by, at least in masters. What I think should be done does not seem to be the current practice.

Here’s the latest USATF release from Landover, which I won’t critique in detail except to note that it appends the missing records of Day 2; refers to Bill Collins as 2006 USATF Masters Athlete of the Year (but not acknowledging that he won for 2008 as well); says Neni Lewis lives in Oakland, Calif., instead of her actual Oakland Gardens, N.Y.; places Betty Jarvis in Aberdeen, Va., instead of her rightful Aberdeen, N.C..; keeps referring to “So Cal Track Club” instead of the correct SoCal TC; and misspells the last name of George Mathews, who used to be our national chair:

LANDOVER, Md. – Fierce competition and world-record setting athletes took center stage Sunday in concluding a successful 2009 USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Center in Landover, Md.
With nearly 1,000 athletes submitting entries, the 2009 edition of the USA Masters Indoor Championships was the largest Championships ever.

Ninety-five year old Leland McPhie of the So Cal Track Club set his second and third world age-division records of the competition with his wins in the M95 high jump and triple jump. His first record came in the high jump with his clearance of 0.96 meters/3 feet 1.75 inches. The previous record of 0.86m/2-9.75 was set in 1997 by Everett Hosack. McPhie then established a new world record with his leap of 3.81m/12-6 in the triple jump.

The So Cal Track Club’s Sumi Onodera-Leonard continued her record-setting ways with a world record in the W80 800m. The only entrant in her age-division, she won the race in 4:59.60, surpassing the previous record of 5:16.53 set by Canada’s Ivy Granstrom in 1996.

 In the W70 800m, Jeanne Daprano broke the world record in winning her race in 3:09.74. The previous record of 3:14.00 was set by Canada’s Jean Horne in 2004.
McPhie’s and Onodera-Leonard’s performances helped the So Cal Track Club claim it’s fifth-consecutive team title with 439 points. The Potomac Valley Track Club, the host of the event, were the runners-up with 358 points and the Philadelphia Masters Track & Field Club were third with 223 points.

 Sid Howard (New York, N.Y.) won the M70 800m in an age-division American record 2:33.36, breaking James Sutton’s previous record of 2:34.10 from 2002. The runner-up was Thom Weedle (Minneapolis, Minn.) in 2:50.72.

George Matthews (Hayden Lakes, Idaho) set his second American age-division record of the weekend with his winning heave of 10.51m/34-5.75 in the M65 super weight throw breaking Robert Cahners’ existing record of 8.60m/28-2 from 2008. Cahners (Naples, Fla.) was the runner-up with 8.85m/29-0.5. In the M75 super weight throw, Bob Ward (Dallas, Texas) crushed the existing American record with his heave of 10.38m/34-0.75. The previous record of 7.70m/25-3 was set in 2007 by Pay Carstensen.

In the women’s super weight throw, Oneithea Lewis (Oakland, Calif.) broke her own American record in the W45 age-division with her winning heave of 10.52m/34-6.25. Her previous record of 9.63m/31-7 was set in 2007. In the W60 age-division, So Cal Strider Myrle Mensey set her second record of the competition with her heave of 9.21m/30-2.75 breaking Carol Young’s 2001 record of 8.13m/26-8.

Betty Jarvis (Aberdeen, Va.) broke her own American record in the W90 age division with 3.67m/12-0.5.

Robert Hewitt (Gresham, Ore.) set an American record in the M75 triple jump with a hop, skip and leap of 9.63m/31-7.25. His mark broke the previous record of 9.38m/30-9.25 set by Edwin Lukens in 1997.

In one of the biggest upsets of the meet, 2006 USATF Masters Athlete of the Year Bill Collins shot out of the blocks and was in the lead in the M55 200m heading into the final straight. But with a late charge from Oscar Peyton, Collins was nipped at the line and took second in 23.98 to Peyton’s 23.97.

In the M55 800m, it was a back-and-forth battle between So Cal Track Club’s Nolan Shaheed and Houston Elite’s Horace Grant. Grant had the early lead with Shaheed taking over on the third lap. But Grant surged and took back the lead on the backstretch of the fourth lap and continued to pull away, crossing the line in 2:09.92 for the win with Shaheed the runner-up in 2:11.68.

In more action from yesterday, Val Barnwell (Brooklyn, N.Y.) broke his own world record in the M50 60m, crossing the line in 7.13. His previous record of 7.18 was set in 2008. In the M65 60m, Steve Robbins (Cleveland, Ohio) broke James Paddie’s 2006 American record of 8.05 with his winning time of 8.04. In the men’s 60m hurdles, Johnny Watson of the So Cal Track Club ran an American record 8.14 for the win, breaking Rod Jett’s 2008 record of 8.22.

For more information and complete results from the 2009 USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships, visit http://www.usatf.org/events/2009/USAMastersIndoorTFChampionships/. Pictures will be posted in the week following the meet.