Masters Track News and Muse

Tania Ciuciula. Annunziata Martone. Corrado Minervini. What's with the Italians? Four months after the IAAF announced drug bans for the latter two Italian masters, yet another doping positive and suspension has been disclosed. The April issue of the IAAF News says veteran Luigi Venturelli tested positive for banned substances at the Italian Masters Championships in Fiuggi on June 16, 2002, and will be benched for two years.

USA masters, rejoice! No more waiting until March of the following season to see how your marks in the current one rank. No more wondering during June, July and August who leads your age group. For the first time in USA masters history, outdoor season performance lists -- A.K.A. rankings -- are online. Thanks to Dave Clingan, my masterstrack.com partner, American masters now can track their competition in-season.

Buried in the agate of the Mexico City meet where Ana Guevara set a world record in the rarely run 300-meter dash, some even rarer marks deserve our attention. Troy Douglas of the Netherlands took seventh in the 100 and fourth in the 200 at the high-altitude meet. His times? Stunning masters world records of 10.47 and 20.72. Douglas (pictured here) turned 40 on November 30, 2002.

A German masters site reports that 273 Germans -- 177 men and 96 women -- have signed up so far to compete in the WMA World Masters Athletic Championships in Puerto Rico. The deadline has been extended to May 26, however, so more may turn out. The Web site promises a complete list of entrants in coming weeks. And therein lies a tale.

World Masters Athletics has awarded its inaugural World Masters Indoor Championships to the small town of Sindelfingen, Germany -- dismaying rival bidders New York City and Malmo, Sweden, and stirring private outrage among members of the WMA Council. According to two sources familiar with the situation, WMA President Torsten Carlius notified Sindelfingen in late April that the WMA Council had voted to award it the 2004 WC indoor meet.

Troy Douglas, the recent M40 record claimant at 100 and 200 (on the same day!) isn't your typical elite elder sprinter, oblivious to masters. In a recent e-mail exchange, Troy acknowledged: "I was aware of the records going in, but it was not my goal -- no challange." Unlike masters, however, he didn't have to foot his travel expenses to Mexico City for the Banamex Grand Prix, saying "(I) did not pay my way. I had an invite."

Since posting here that World Masters Athletics has informed the German city of Sindelfingen that it had been chosen to host the inaugural World Masters Indoor Championships in March 2004, I've received a number of dispeptic notes saying I'm full of crap -- and that the WMA Council has done no such thing. Well, tell that to New York. And tell that to USATF Masters Chairman George Mathews, who wrote to Torsten Carlius on April 23, the day the WMA president informed NYC it had lost the WC indoor sweepstakes without a vote of the General Assembly.

The May-June issue of California Track & Running News contains a very intriguing article about the new track at the Home Depot Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson -- intriguing because it mentions the M-word three times. M as in Masters. USATF's Southern California Association has submitted a facilities use plan that includes what it calls "masters development events."

USATF, bless its PR-savvy soul, has posted the names, ages, events and home states of 365 USA entrants in this summer's World Masters Athletic Championships -- from M65 racewalker Carlos Acosta of California to M50 sprinter Zbigy Zlobicki of Michigan. The oldest Americans in Puerto Rico will be racewalker Fan Benno-Caris of Texas (she's 85), middle-distanceman Dudley Healy of New Jersey (he's 89) and WAVA vet Maxwell Springer of Tennesee (entered at age 89 in the 200, 400, 800, 1500, TJ and LJ!)

Oh well. Two days after posting a USA roster that included all entrants' ages, USATF has uploaded a new roster of WMA world meet entrants that deletes the ages and adds M or F. Sigh. I've written to USATF.org webmaster Keith Lively, asking if the ages can be restored. They're kind of essential, since this is an age-group meet.

WMA President Torsten Carlius, in his first public comments on the site selection for the first World Masters Indoor Championships, confirms that Sindelfingen, Germany, has been endorsed by the WMA Council. However, he uses the phrase "if approved" to suggest that it's not yet set in stone -- and that the WMA General Assembly will have its say July 10 in Puerto Rico at the world masters outdoor meet. But he also "takes for granted" that the German bidder is the winner. Here's what Carlius said in a posting to the Eurovets Web site:

The biennial world masters championships traditionally draws 5,000 to 6,000 athletes, making it one of the world's biggest track meets. But this year's event in Carolina, Puerto Rico, may see a dramatic falloff in those figures. According to local organizing committee spokesman Manuel de Jesús: "We are processing more and more entries as they come. . . . Today we have over 2,300 (entrants) and more are coming. Hopefully visa problems can be resolved for all athletes that are non US citizens." Earlier this week, Annette's Seite reported that only 1,900 athletes had registered for the world WMA meet.

Thanks to a masters mole, I have secured a copy of the official agenda for the July 10, 2003, General Assembly of World Masters Athletics in Puerto Rico. It's a stunner. Proposals for changes in the WMA Constitution would revolutionize how world masters track is run. One proposal would open up WMA's finances to real public scrutiny for the first time in its near 30-year history. Another would set the clock BACK decades by giving the WMA Council the power to award world championships without a vote of the General Assembly. And most revealing of all -- a USATF proposal would forbid WMA Council members with a financial interest in masters track from voting on such events.

Britain's Bridget Cushen, a W60 distance runner who spent many years as the Women's Representative in WAVA (now WMA), isn't taking kindly to WMA president Torsten Carlius' efforts to railroad the choice of venue for the inaugural World Masters Indoor Championships. In answer to a British journalist's query on the topic, she came out with both guns blazing.

Although I'm not competing at the Pan-Pacific Masters Games in Sacramento this summer, I subscribe to the group's e-mail newsletters. The latest notice indicates that the Pan-Pac people may be worried about a lack of entries. It sayeth: "The Early Entry Deadline has been extended to June 15! Make sure you get your entry application in soon to be entered for the chance to win a trip to Australia for the 2004 Pan Pacific masters Games in the Gold Coast . . . See you this July!!!" Love those !!! -- Always a tipoff that you're getting desperate.

Hal Higdon is a rarity -- a masters athlete familiar to the running public. A veteran of many World Masters Outdoor Championships, Higdon is an author, artist and senior writer for Runner's World -- as well as a founder of the Road Runners Club of America. He's a thoughtful M70 getting ready for his latest WMA meet. But this time he's peeved. When Higdon runs the 2K steeple, 10K and 1500 in Puerto Rico, he'll be doing so under protest -- of WMA's new uniform rules.

Science should study Merlene Ottey. On May 10, Merlene turned 43. On May 25, she celebrated with a masters W40 record at 200 meters, clocking an incredible 23.33 at a meet in Celje, Slovenia. News of Merlene's latest masters record came from Marty Post of Runner's World Online, who spotted Merlene's name in the latest European athletics rankings.