Hugs all around at Olathe masters nationals athletes banquet

Winners of the 2012 USATF masters track awards were announced last December at the annual meeting in Daytona Beach, Florida. But the snazzy little plaques weren’t awarded until the Olathe nationals athletes banquet July 13. Check out this photo gallery of the evening. Besides Athletes of the Year Bob Lida and Jeanne Daprano, you’ll see David Pain Award winner Bob Weiner embracing masters national chair Gary Snyder and awards committee chief Mary Trotto kissing Olympian Ed Burke. Masters official Marilyn Mitchell is shown handing W75 star Fei-Mei Chou $150 in cash — thanks to a drawing seeded by StarFleet Shuttles, the last-minute savior of Olathe transit. Mary mentioned the reason for the 30-49, 50-59, 60-74 and 75-and-over age groupings. She said each grouping (male and female both) has about 500 participants. So that means USATF has about 4,000 active masters track and field athletes. Also see the food served at the banquet. I wasn’t kidding in my earlier critique.