Decathlon nationals marred by Chris Bates injury; may skip worlds
Chris Bates was on a tear at the national masters decathlon championships in Dallas over the weekend, getting three personal bests (for his age group, I assume). Then disaster struck. “I popped my left hamstring badly on my second attempt at 3.80 in the vault.” He soldiered on in the javelin, however, and threw a PB from a couple steps “but just couldn’t run at all and had to hobble straight-legged in the 15 just to finish the dec.” He ran an 8:35 in the last event and still won the M45 age group. But his record hopes — and perhaps chances at worlds — were toast. “Now I’m questionable for Sac,” he wrote before heading home to Oregon. (See results here.)
Let's hope Chris Bates can find a way to hurdle his latest barrier: hammy pull.
Stefan Waltermann, the only M60 entrant, said he arrived injured (and also is doubtful for Sacramento).
“The annual family reunion of the American masters decathletes is a meet I simply have to attend, injured or not,” he wrote me.
He added these details about the event:
St. Marks of Dallas is the perfect venue for multi events, simply the best. I guess with the name of the donor Lamar Hunt prominently displayed, the world-class facility should have been a surprise to nobody. If the facility is one ingredient of a successful host, people are the second. Fun loving, knowledgeable, effective, caring… It would be hard to find better hosts.
A never ending supply of water and Gatorade, plenty of oranges, two big tubs serving as ice baths, tends all over the place. What else? Long jump pits suited for Olympic Games, pole vault pits with favorite wind guarantees (I’m not kidding), perfect throwing rings, a fast track, well, I should stop gushing.
The event, the facility and the hosts deserved a larger group of athletes. I guess with the National Senior Games and the worlds coming up, a low turnout was to be expected. It was a bit too low for my taste. As to the competition, in the M45, Chris Bates was right on track for a new American, maybe even a word record, when disaster struck in the pole vault. Now, we might have lost a medal
contender for Sac to a serious hamstring injury. Another medal contender at the worlds, M65 Bob Baker arrived with an injury, started the 100 and pulled up after 30. The “heart & soul” of masters decathlon, M55 Jeff Watry arrived injured.Russell Jaquet-Acea needed a good 1500 to beat second place Dennis Webb by 18 points in the M55. Kay Glynn scored big in the women’s decathlon, scoring 6900 points without finishing the 1500. In the high jump, she missed Phil Raschker’s W55 record by 1 cm and almost cleared 1.50 on her second attempt.
11 Responses
That is a most excellent report, Stefan. You are indeed a very fine reporter, and you are not even writing in your first language.
As for Kay Glynn, just a wonderful performance (6900 points).
Chris, so sorry to hear of your hamstring. The injury bug has been biting a lot of us! Best wishes to you, and here’s hoping that we all heal up very soon.
(And Congratulations Kay!!)
Oh, how I hated to miss that meet. After all those years of Deca/Hep “family reunions” I am joining the ranks of the “walking wounded” way too long.
Like Bill C. we are trying to figure out, why I could not get well! YES, dehydration was one reason, then I need more sodium, according to the MD, etc,etc.
But paying the entry fees for Sacto makes me show up, joining friends and just hope to do “something”
Maybe just meeting my friends is the best reason,
the disappointment, I need to swallow!
And I can always “officiate” There is a need for it.
Bill, Doug, Chris, et all(Stefan, will see you in Sacto?) let’s just hope for a small miracle.
Now if Jerry will have a good meet, our 20 min.
of (being grumpy) after a poor performance, might
not be needed…
Kay, you are champ!
See you all, a hug goes a long way!
I agree with Stefan on the great facility and hosts.
Kudos to the officials for being in the heat for 2 days. I’ve been a master’s sprinter for many years and got to experience the satisfaction and suffering of a decathlon for the first time. Can’t wait ’til next year, but glad I have a year to work on some of my weak events(even though some would like me to repeat my crazy PV “technique” for the humor). It was a great weekend at St. Marks.
Thank you Peter. By the way, the Olympic gold, silver and bronze medal winner Walter Thane Baker was our starter. What an honor to be in the presence of one of our legends! Mister Baker is still doing a world class job. After one false start, three guns went off. No surprise, after all, we were in Texas. And we had more officials/judges than the world championship in Italy.
Sorry to hear about your injury but sometimes hammys heal faster than anticipated. Don’t lose hope!
Chris,sometimes the body is saying rest and i will get better,team USA is a better team with our WORLD CHAMPION, AND WORLD RECORD HOLDER CHRIS BATES,CHAMPIONS FIND A WAY,NEVER COUNT BATES OUT.
hope you are ok we can all feed off each other as decathlon team mates hope you can make it in good shape
Hi All
Women’s Scores are still not correct in Hytek – so we need to manually correct – 1500 still needs to be factored. We corrected the first day already
John Turek (st, MArks)states he would like to host meet again and we will do it their again – could be as early as next year
St. Marks gets my vote for 2012.
Hope you can recover soon Chris. Want to see you in the LJ. Fighting one Hammy myself. Show em’ Aztecs don’t go down easily.
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