Flo Meiler in Oshkosh

During a record attempt last month at Oshkosh nationals, Flo Meiler of Vermont fell and banged her head on the pole vault box. The gash required six staples. She recovered quickly, though, and took home a dozen medals.  But would the record later prove a mental barrier?  Heck no. On August 5, competing at the National Senior Games in Palo Alto, California, Flo, 75, became the oldest woman over 2 meters — clearing 2.01 (6-7) to break the listed W75 world record of 1.90 (6-2 3/4) by Leonore McDaniels at the 2003 Eugene nationals. I learned of Flo’s mark from a letter she sent my wife, who had sent her a photo CD. “Just got back from Senior Games,” Flo wrote by hand on lined paper. “Broke pole vault record. Got 3 gold, 3 silvers and 3 bronze.” On the Age-Graded Tables, Flo’s 2.01 corresponds to an Open (ages 20-30) equivalent of 5.44 (17-10 1/4). Incredible. In 2007, she set a W70 indoor WR of 2.11 (6-11), as I noted after the fact.

In a perfect world — and by all rights — the USATF and WMA records sites would already reflect Flo’s amazing mark, even if a fig-leaf “p” (for pending ratification) were required. Of course, only the swimmers live in this idealized world (as I noted exhaustively in March).

But now it’s time for masters track to get with the program — using simpler forms and widely available technology to make the record books reflect reality, and swiftly.

In Oshkosh, I attended the USATF Masters T&F Executive Committee meeting, held in Bob Weiner’s hotel suite around a long table laden with munchies and drinks.  I haven’t written about this until now because of obligations and distractions. Sorry for delay.

But here’s the deal:

I spoke about our petition on reforming the records process, and declared that no single person should be the “judge, jury and executioner” of masters records. USATF Masters T&F Chairman Gary Snyder batted down a committee member’s defense of a system that forces athletes to prepare their own records applications, arguing that 90-year-olds can’t be expected to chase down signatures from a half-dozen meet officials.

Gary told the committee that complaints and questions about the records process have become a huge headache for him, perhaps the biggest demand on his time. So thanks to Gary having a stake in the issue — the prospect of being spared the annoyance of dealing with record-setting athletes — he declared that the record system had to be fixed.

He said he didn’t know how at this point, but promised it would be done.

So Gary said tag I’m it. He told longtime USATF rules maven Graeme Shirley, my fellow San Diegan, to get together with me and come up with some rootin’-tootin’ official proposals for the 2010 annual meeting (not 2009’s), when rules changes affecting records can be considered.

I’ll send Graeme my petition and hope he’s open to crafting substantive proposals.

So stay tuned. Change is in the air.

Can we fix this broken system and do justice to athletes like Flo Meiler?

Yes we can! 

Results from the official timing site:

 RecordTiming.com – Contractor License
              2009 National Senior Games – 8/5/2009 to 8/11/2009              
                           Sponsored by: Del Monte                            
                      Stanford University –Stanford, Ca                      
 
Event 120  W65 Pole Vault –
==========================================================================    
    Name                     Age Team                    Finals               
==========================================================================    
Finals                                                                        
  1 O’Connor, Nadine         W67 California               2.90m    9-06.25    
  2 Jager, Kathy             W66 Arizona                  2.11m    6-11.00    
  3 Andrieu, Brenda          W69 Hawaii                   1.51m    4-11.50 1-2
  4 Whitlock, Shelly         W69 Texas                   J1.51m    4-11.50 3-2
  5 White, Sara              W66 Texas                    1.04m    3-05.00    
Event 120  W70 Pole Vault –
==========================================================================    
    Name                     Age Team                    Finals               
==========================================================================    
  1 Bradford, Mary Lou       W73 Texas                    1.51m    4-11.50    
Event 120  W75 Pole Vault –
==========================================================================    
    Name                     Age Team                    Finals               
==========================================================================    
  1 Meiler, Flo              W75 Vermont                  2.01m    6-07.00    
Event 120  W80 Pole Vault –
==========================================================================    
    Name                     Age Team                    Finals               
==========================================================================    
  1 Overton, Sarah           W84 Tennessee             &
nbsp;  0.74m    2-05.00    
Event 120  W85 Pole Vault –
==========================================================================    
    Name                     Age Team                    Finals               
==========================================================================    
 — Hinton, Margaret         W87 Texas                       NH