Masters Track News and Muse

My bad. While fawning over Penn this week, I neglected to point out that masters --and good ones -- were competing at Drake this weekend, too. Mark Cleary organized several races (and DNS'd in one of them). The winning times were pretty fair -- 2:01 in the 800 and 4:19 in the mile. I know the miler. Never heard of the half man.

In the course of reporting the latest Kip Janvrin deca win at Drake, USATF reports: " 'I just don't see myself competing next year,' said (39-year-old) Janvrin, who is the oldest active U.S. competitor in the decathlon." Oldest active American decathlete? Um, that must come as a surprise to 64-year-old Phil Byrne of Massachusetts. Or 66-year-old Emil Pawlik of Mississippi. Or Bill Daprano, who was 76 when he did the deca at Puerto Rico worlds in 2003. Or Denver Smith, who was 77 when he set a U.S. age-group deca record at Puerto Rico.

It was wet at Penn last weekend, but rain didn't fall on the featured M40 men's 4x400 relay Saturday afternoon, which saw one team lose a big lead, get second and then find itself a winner upon disqualification of the first quartet across the finish line. Several participants have shared their observations.

If you're planning to compete at the WMA world championships in Spain, you better know this: Deadline for American entries (without late fees) is May 6. That's Friday. USATF further sez: "If entries are received after May 6, but on or before May 27, a $68.00 late fee must be added to your entry fees. From May 28 to June 17, add $135.00. NO entries will be accepted after June 17, 2005."

Annette Koop, the German middle-distance champ, has been reporting what seems to be a huge scandal in German masters track -- the loss of 147,000 Euros (almost $190.000) in the bank account of what I take to be in association overseeing track in the German state of Brandenburg. Don't quote me. I don't read German. I Googled it with a translation service.

The Net is incredible. (Oh, yeah, you noticed.) Has stuff online you never knew you'd need. Latest example is the "Route Ruler" by a team led by Alex Sumberg, a 32-year-old runner. The site is slick. Shows evidence of great thought. Haven't tried it. (And I rarely run roads.) But since I know many of y'all do, I mention it as an FYI. Alex devised the site after using a Hal Higdon marathon training program. See, us geezers do good in mysterious ways.

Bill Benson of Valley Stream, N.Y., demolished his own M85 American record in the mile Saturday, clocking 9:18.42, reports the Durham Herald Sun in North Carolina. He did it at the 35th Southeastern Masters Track and Field Meet at Duke University in Durham. His old record was 9:56.93, which he set in July 2004 at age 85. (But he had a hand-timed 9:42.4 last August at the GLIRC Mile & Relay Carnival in Farmingdale, N.Y.)

Thanks to a post by T&FN editor Garry Hill, I've learned of a new American record in a marquee event -- the M40 100-meter dash. Results of Saturday's Occidental Invitational show ex-NFL star Willie Gault, now 44, with a legal time of 10.73 in the 100-meter dash, which had a wind reading of 0.6 meters per second (1.4 mph). That takes down the venerable 10.87 by Munich Olympian Eddie Hart, set way back in 1989.

Good news on the record front. Occidental track coach Troy Engle, who helped run the meet at Oxy where Willie Gault presumably set an American M40 best in the 100, writes me: "I was not aware of the record - thanks for bringing it to my attention! I have printed the paperwork and will get on it."

M65 sprint stud Doug Smith, a force behind several masters meets in Southern California, is hoping for a good turnout at a new meet Saturday, May 28, at San Clemente High School in south Orange County. He's also looking forward to the event for personal reasons: a match race with his training partner (and friendly rival) Colleen Barney. Entry deadline is May 20.

Get a digital video camera. Put it on a tripod. Get someone to yell: Bang! Then let the camera roll as you sprint from the blocks. Rinse and repeat. Then import the video to your computer and check it out in some appropriate editing software. That, in a nutshell, is how to time yourself to a better accuracy than just a finger on a stopwatch.

Tomorrow is the annual Visalia Classic Masters Meet in central California. The Fresno Bee's Nick Giannandrea did a good preview of the meet (appended below). I'm counting on Keith Nelson, who lives in the region, to finally nail the M50 American record in the high jump. And M45 Kevin Morning is always a threat to sprint records. The weather looks good.

At the 2003 IAAF World Championships in Paris, Ed Moses announced a comeback with the goal of making the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. He bailed out in early 2004, finding that M45 hurdling takes a toll. He complained of knee injuries. A new interview with Moses provides a few more details.

John Keston, age 80, has been a force on the masters middle-distance scene for years. On Saturday, he added to his legend by running the mile in 6:48.3 -- and beating the old record by more than a minute! The man from McMinville, Oregon, was competing in the Fountain of Youth Masters Mile at Canby High School in Canby, Oregon.

Penn Relays and Mt. SAC notwithstanding, it's still generally rare for elite open meets to include masters events. For example, you rarely see masters compete in Golden Spike-type U.S. meets (like the Prefontaine Classic, directed by Tom Jordan, a top official in World Masters Athletics.) But Frank Schiro in New York informs us of an opportunity at the 19th Annual New Jersey International Track and Field Meet.

At the beginning of the masters track movement, the word "veterans" was a point of contention. Did it mean old folks or did it mean war vets? By one vote, the world organizing body was named the World Association of Veteran Athletes. Then a few years ago, WAVA became WMA -- World Masters Athletics. But wait! Some Veterans Games really are for veterans.

Kevin Morning, a 1997 and 2001 world champ from northern California, is in his late 40s, but he hasn't slowed much since his M45 200 world record of 22.13 in 2002. At last weekend's Visalia Masters Classic in central California, he clocked a hand-timed 22.5, with a legal wind, reports meet director Bob Higginbotham. Morning also was timed in 11.1 for the 100. Not bad for 48 or 49. Keith Nelson, the M50 jumper, cleared about 6 feet but couldn't go for an American record. Higginbotham says Keith complained of a muscle problem.

A few years back, I volunteered to research members of the USATF Masters Track Hall of Fame and send the results to USATF webmaster Keith Lively for posting online. I got much of it done, then got stuck. I didn't have nearly enough basic info to complete the job. So I dropped it (or rather punted it to some other folks). Now I've seen a way to revive the project. My inspiration is athletebio.com.

A long time ago, in a country not so far away, middle-aged and older ladies and gents gathered for the first World Masters Track and Field Championships. The meet was held Aug. 11-17, 1975, in Toronto, Canada. And thanks to Canadian marathon great Ed Whitlock (and our respective postal services), I have in my hot little hands the results book of that inaugural world meet.

Would someone please let Willie Banks know that it's time to strap on the old spikes again? From the masterstf mailing list on Yahoo Groups comes this Annette Koop news flash: "Today Wolfgang Knabe (*1959, OSC Damme, Germany) jumped 15,13m (W.: +0,2) at Garbsen near Hanover (GER). That's a new M45 triple jump world record (til now Willie Banks, USA, 14,55m)."

Nearly four months ago, I posted my findings on why the new Age-Graded Tables had been delayed. At the time, the tables (aka Magic Decoder Ring of masters track) were supposedly weeks away from being sent to National Masters News for publication. But they still haven't been disseminated. Why? Let AGT honcho Rex Harvey explain.

Well, Willie is stoked. Today he wrote me: "Thank you for letting me know. This is a good day for me. I have been looking for competition and challenging my old competitors for the last 4 years (to) no avail. Finally, I have a challenger! I can not wait to go to the world champs so we can decide who will reign as king of the old TJ'ers. I am feeling young again thanks to Mr. Knabe! I remember him and I will not let him down. If you can, please thank him for getting out there and leaping. Tell him, however, that I am coming back to reclaim MY record!"

When I talk to mainstream mediafolk about masters, I make a point to stress that we're a whole lot more interesting than just being geezers on the track and field. We have issues. We overcome life challenges. We are survivors. One current example comes to mind: M50 vaulter/sprinter Steve Hardison. At the Visalia Masters Classic on May 14, Steve jumped 13 feet and ran the 4 in 55.2. Both great marks. But check out his backstory.

This should be interesting. Tonight I sent a questionnaire to Stan Perkins of Australia and Cesare Beccalli of Italy, the known candidates for president of World Masters Athletics. I also cc'd the note to Monty Hacker, WMA secretary, who is responsible for knowing who the candidates are at this summer's General Assembly in San Sebastian, Spain. Here's my letter:

Talked to Rex Harvey today after exchanging email with Norm Green, two masters officials involved in the "2002" redo of the hallowed Age-Graded Tables. The bottom line: The finished tables will go to National Masters News by mid-June, and NMN publisher Suzy Hess promises she'll get the booklets distributed with great dispatch. The delay I discussed a few days ago has been resolved.

Rita Hanscom of San Diego is a sprint phenom at age 51. I'm a sprint wannabe who turns 51 in three weeks. What do we have in common besides age group and event? Well, today we delighted in running the identical time in the 100 meters at the inaugural San Clemente Masters Meet at San Clemente High School in south Orange County, California. In separate races, we both clocked 13.33.

Hundreds of masters athletes have kids (or grandkids) running track, so there's no way to keep track of them all. But today I noticed that M45 200/400 stud James Lofton, the NFL Hall of Famer, is cheering for his son Daniel, a junior at Westview High School north of San Diego. Daniel ran a third-place 49.70 in the CIF San Diego Section 400 final yesterday to qualify for this coming weekend's California State Championships at Sacramento City College.

The annual Chuck McMahon Memorial Masters Meet in San Diego is one of countless masters events affiliated with Senior Olympic organizations around the country. But this year, it will stand out in the crowd: On television.

I guess the Monaco Mother Ship can have its senior moments, too. The International Association of Athletics Federations, or IAAF, refers to WMA as the "World Masters Asssociation" in its latest PDF newsletter, dated May 31. Common mistake, I guess, but not one you'd expect from the grand poohbahs of world track and field.