Leaning key to speed? Striders meet provides object lessons

Leaning back is apt for vault.

I can’t get over the photos. They show Jim Chinn, Joy Upshaw and other speedsters with such a tremendous lean. Is that the key to their quickness — or a symptom? In any case, last Saturday’s Southern California Striders Meet of Champions showed great form in the jumps, vault and starts. (But ignore my height in the 300 hurdles. I’m a work-in-progress.) See the gallery. Results haven’t been posted, but some entrants are self-reporting on mastersrankings.com. I recall 64-year-old Nolan Shaheed running about 2:20 for the 800 (after an earlier 400), and M50 Jim ran about 24.5 for 200. My Striders teammates Damien Leake and Joe Ruggles (rocking an all-red uni with red Adidas) were neck-and-neck in the sprints. A few vaulters were impressive. (At least in the photos.) Stay tuned for more details on the meet at Santa Ana College.

Jim Chinn gets going fast about 20 meters into the 200 at Striders meet.

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May 6, 2014

6 Responses

  1. Matt McCubbins - May 7, 2014

    wow, Ken, bring that clearance height over to the HJ pit! 🙂

  2. Gary McCullouch - May 7, 2014

    Ken,
    The results are published at “www.directathletics.com”

  3. Ken Stone - May 7, 2014

    Indeed, results are here for men:
    http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/35194_m.html

    And for women:
    http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/35194.html

    But no age groups indicated. Sigh.

  4. Mike Ritter - May 8, 2014

    Good pictures Ken. Nice meeting you at the meet.

  5. Fred B - May 9, 2014

    That’s an awesome picture of Jim Chinn, great extension/form

  6. Peter Taylor - May 10, 2014

    Agree. That is simply a wonderful photo of Jim Chinn or, for that matter, of any sprinter over the age of 40.

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