Masters Track News and Muse

With no public fanfare, coordinator Mark Cleary has announced the events that will serve as masters exhibition races at the USATF nationals at Carson (near Los Angeles) in less than four weeks: a men's 110 hurdles and a women's 1500. Actually, it wasn't so much announced as whispered -- deep in the bowels of the USATF Web site, on a page devoted to masters exhibitions.

WMA prez candidate Cesare Beccalli has responded to my interview request, despite taking "great offense" at a question that suggested he bribed Hungarians to vote for him the first time he ran for president. Whatta guy. Stan Perkins, the only other known candidate for president, hasn't replied yet. But I'm hopeful that he'll want to get his licks in soon. Lemme know what you think of Cesare's answers.

I'm flattered. Again. USATF Masters T&F Chairman George Mathews in his April report cited me by name while discussing (the lack of) drug-testing in masters track. Now, in his June report (not yet online but on page 5 of the latest National Masters News), Chairman George again responds directly to some comments I've made. Cept this time he doesn't mention "Ken Stone."

Mark Cleary, coordinator of masters invitational programs for USATF, sez he's trying to line up a 110 hurdle race involving former giants Roger Kingdom, Renaldo Nehemiah and Greg Foster, along with Willie Gault, Jack Pierce, Henry Andrade and current masters recordholder David Ashford for a little M40 exhibition showdown at USATF Open Nationals in three weeks. Good luck.

Willie Gault having to step aside? Only 20 days after Willie lowered the venerable American masters record in the 100 to 10.73, Don Fields reportedly ran a truly hard to fathom 10.38 in an M40 race at the BAYTAF meet May 27 in Tampa, Florida. But since no wind reading is given, the performance stands as a mystery.

Stan Perkins of Australia has joined fellow WMA president candidate Cesare Beccalli of Italy in answering my questionnaire. The 5,600-word exchange is one of the longest I've ever had with a masters track figure, and there is much to digest. Cesare's responses were posted several days ago. Both Q&A's are still under construction, and I'm adding more to Cesare's soon, mainly biographical data.

The biennial National Senior Olympics track meet gets under way today at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennyslvania, and event organizers are promising something interesting: customized results at one's request. I simply wrote that I wanted all track and field results ASAP. We'll see if they deliver.

Tony Young of Washington state apparently has discovered the fountain of youth. (Or maybe just hard training and wise choice of races.) On June 4 he nearly matched his own American M40 record in the mile -- set two years ago. Tony ran 4:07.27 on June 4 at a meet in Nashville, Tennessee. He is 43 years old. At age 40, he ran 4:09.61. At age 41 he ran 4:07.25. Officially, though, Young's American M40 record is 4:09.61. Go figure.

The meet ain't even half done and already a bunch of world and American age-group records have fallen at the National Senior Olympics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Yesterday, for starters, Bobby Whilden of Texas knocked a hallowed Payton Jordan world record off the books. Bobby, 70, clocked a stunning 12.76 for the 100 with a 1.8 mps wind (barely legal) to upend the 12.91 M70 record set by Payton in 1991 at age 74.

Willie Gault is just warming up. So is Aaron Thigpen. Both M40 sprinters crashed the 10.70 barrier for the 100 Saturday at the Southern California USATF Association Masters Championships at West Los Angeles College in Culver City. For reasons I don't yet know, they ran in separate heats. First Thigpen ran 10.68 -- under the pending American M40 record of 10.73 that Willie ran at Occidental College on May 10. Then Willie won HIS heat in 10.60!

More results from the weekend are filtering in, including news of two records involving the 200. At Saturday's Southern California Association USATF Masters Championships, Willie Gault scorched the M40 200 in 21.6-something electronically and Kettrell Berry ran 21.8-something. Awaiting details on exact times and wnd readings. The listed American M40 record for 200 is the 21.86 by Bill Collins dating to 1992.

Michael Chiles, an M35 sprinter who says he's the coach of masters sprinter Don Fields, has responded to my request for details on the 10.38 100 attributed to Fields at a Tampa meet a few weeks back. Here's what Chiles sent. My apologies for the SCREAMING TEXT. No apologies for running as is. Hope he coaches better than he spells.

A USATF official in the Missouri Valley Association just sent me info on a June 17-18 youth meet that also will accommodate masters "born before 1975." He apologizes for the late notice but says he'll waive LATE entry fees for masters who take part. Such a deal! (This is a correction to earlier post saying all fees would be waived.) The entry fee is only $10.

Willie Banks, former world record holder in the open triple jump, is finding his revived comeback as a masters jumper a challenge. But he's still confident, based on improved speed in workouts, that he'll reclaim the M45 record in the TJ he lost recently to a German athlete. At Saturday's SoCal Association USATF masters championships in Culver City, Willie hop-step-and-jumped 13.10 meters -- just shy of 43 feet. His M45 American record remains 47-9.

No Roger Kingdom. No Renaldo Nehemiah. No Greg Foster. No wonder. The masters men's 110 hurdles exhibition race at the USATF open nationals next week still has record-setting potential, but the big names hinted by event organizer Mark Cleary are a no-show, at least according to USATF's Status of Entries page. Still, the SoCal Track Club is well-represented -- with almost a third of the entrants.

China has, what, 1.3 billion people? Must be tough to hold a masters nationals. Five hundred heats of the 100? But no, they're not that into geezertrack. Not yet at least. My academic superstar friend Professor Thierry Boucquey at Scripps College (at California's Claremont University) is just back from competing at the Chinese nationals -- and conducting research on the sport. He returned with some hardware, too.

In an earlier post, I wondered aloud why all the women in the upcoming exhibition 1500 masters race at Carson nationals had times that end in .00. Now Mark Cleary -- organizer of the masters events at nationals -- gives an explanation. They're mostly converted marks. (He says he subtracted 20 seconds from mile times to come up with 1500 times.) OK fine.

Don Fields says it was a perfect day for sprinting in Tampa, Florida -- 90 degrees, no problems with his left Achilles' tendon or right hamstring. No wind either. As Fields recalls it, his hand-timed 10.4 for 100 meters at the BAYTAF meet on May 27 was a long time coming. And perfectly timed for a masters athlete. He turned 40 just last September. But his shocking mark -- a potential American record -- raised eyebrows as well, including on this blog, which headlined his feat "Too good to be true?" Fields insists it was all too true.

Andy Hecker had a heck of a time running the Southern California Association USATF Masters Championships on June 11. That extended to determining final results. He first posted an incomplete set. Later he reviewed some phototimer shots and added further details. So finally we can celebrate 44-year-old Willie Gault's incredible day: a wind-aided 10.60 for 100, a legal 21.80 for 200 (an American M40 record) and a 41.4 hand-time 4x100 relay (under the listed world record). We're still awaiting word on his time in the 110 hurdles (with a just-legal 2.0 mps wind). Andy seeks help identifying folks in finish shots he's posted.

KVAL TV in Eugene, Oregon, reports that W55 runner Zel Brook was prevented from competing in the hallowed Hayward Masters Classic over the weekend because she uses a cane -- the result of her once having a brain tumor. First the article and then my comments.

Thursday afternoon through Sunday night, I'll be in Carson covering the USA Outdoor National Track & Field Championships. You can read everything I write from the Home Depot Center cuz I'll be keeping a real-time diary, or blog, via Wi-Fi Internet access in the air. I've already posted one item -- a brief history of online track coverage. (It doesn't take long to cover that subject.) Please excuse the dated title of blog. It ain't the Olympic Trials anymore. Tweaks are still being made. But check out the blog for live coverage of all major events at nationals, including the masters races on Sunday around 12:30 p.m. Pacific time. And tell a friend.

More details have emerged on the Hayward Classic rebuff of Zel Brook, the cane-using W55 runner in Oregon. Latest story appeared in the Corvallis newspaper, which says Brooks jumped through all the hoops she could, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act, and still couldn't get permission to run in a USATF-sanctioned meet with her cane. The cane is a "danger" to other runners. (And her spikes aren't?)

Decastar Kip Janvrin, who turns 40 in July, stands in 12th place after six events in the decathlon at the USATF nationals in Carson. I'm focusing on that meet for the weekend. View my nationals track blog for updates on Janvrin and the kiddies.

Not bad for a 44-year-old sprinter. Willie has been having a sensational, phenomenal season -- and USATF has finally recognized it by naming him its Athlete of the Week. He'll have a chance to add to his legend tomorrow at the Carson nationals, where he'll shoot for the world M40 record at 110 hurdles against current record holder (13.73) David Ashford as well as former stud Henry Andrade and Bay Area sensation Peter Grimes. Another Willie -- Willie Banks -- was an Athlete of the Week about five years ago.

If Anselm LeBourne were a stock, I'd buy 10,000 shares. He sets middle-distance records like clockwork. Anselm, a NYSE analyst, reports (and another correspondent confirms) that he bettered the listed M45 world record in the 800 Sunday at a masters meet in New York City, clocking 1:55.13 at age 46 to beat the longstanding 1:56.16 by Dutchman Ronaldo Mercelina in 1991. LeBourne, who is savvy to media needs, sent his own press release.

As great a race as Sunday's masters 110 hurdles event was, with Willie Gault winning in a wind-aided 13.87 at Carson nationals, how much better could it have been with the addition of American record holder Roger Kingdom, the Olympic champion? In his Washington Times column Sunday, Steve Nearman mentions Kingdom's interest in that masters exhibition race.

Nadine O'Connor, 63, gets better and better at the pole vault, leveraging her world-class W60 speed and newfound technical skills to get her skinny butt over the bar. A new San Diego vault Web site carries vaulting video of Nadine, her Del Mar partner Bud Held and a few other studs, including M50 Mike Hogan.

When I learned that ESPN2 had aired the masters exhibition 110 hurdles race from Carson nationals, I was thrilled. Today, when I finally got to see the broadcast on tape, my thrills were deflated by dismay at the flubs by announcers Dwight Stones, Larry Rawson and Mark Jones. Also it was apparent that the main reason the race was shown was because a celebrity athlete -- Willie Gault -- was in the race. His name recognition from football made it possible for ESPN to devote nearly 2 1/2 minutes of its Sunday show to the men's masters event.

USATF has disclosed the American roster for the WMA world masters meet in San Sebastian, conveniently listing athletes by event and alphabetically. This avoids the biennial battle over releasing the names in advance of the meet, and makes it possible for hometown media (and friends and relatives) to track the progress of local athletes.