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Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:28 am

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Senior Masters Athlete
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Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:05 am
Posts: 19
Location: Carlsbad, New Mexico

At my very first meet three years ago in Odessa, Texas the shot put began with Masters and Open competitiors throwing at the same time, one right after the other. It was all very serious as very few knew one another. We weren't talking to one another either. A very somber affair.

After three throws by everyone the official marking distances knew about how far each of us would throw so he would move in close to what he expected us to throw.

A 70 yr. old man stepped into the ring, the official moved in to about 25 feet away and waited. The thrower went through his usual routine with the shot. You could tell from his actions it was a heavy ball and quite hard for him to throw. Except this time the shot came out of his hand in a line drive like it was shot from a cannon and headed straight for the marking official! His eyes suddenly got huge, his mouth fell open and he yelled out loud and jumped out of the way of the shot just as it sped past him, nearly hitting him right in the chest! The shot finally hit about forty feet out and rolled another 60 or so! It was a softball the guy had painted black, but it looked just like a shot put and the thrower's acting was supberb. Everyone cracked up after we realized what the guy had done, even the official who nearly got hit.

After that throw, we all loosened up and really enjoyed the meet!

The competitors from Mexico and their cheering section were something else too! But that's another story!



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Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:41 pm

 
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Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:06 pm
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Location: San Diego

I have a mixed-group story of my own.

Around 1996, I joined the San Diego Track Club. I got to wear their cool uniform with a Conquistador helmeted head on the front. (Meant to evoke Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542.)

Anyway, I wanted to high-jump in the annual Spring Beak Open at UC San Diego -- a meet that draws collegians from around the country. But I wasn't up to to 6-foot opening height. So I asked the meet director, UCSD coach Tony Salerno, if I could jump with the women instead. He said sure, and took my entry fee.

Everything was cool at first. My name was printed in the meet program as an entrant in the women's high jump. After explaining my presence to the high jump official (who pointed at my mustache with a quizzical look), I jumped with the gals, who didn't have any problem. I took something like 5th or 6th.

But a few weeks after the event, the San Diego TC newsletter came out, listing how all its members did at the Spring Break Open.

In the high jump, they listed: Kim Stone, 5-2. (correction from earlier post, when I said "Karen Stone)

I quit the track club.

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Ken Stone
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Last edited by Ken Stone on Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:17 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:48 pm

 
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Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:44 pm
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Location: poughkeepsie, ny

Ken has an "evil twin", named Karen, but sometimes named "Jeffrey"



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Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:11 am

 
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Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:01 am
Posts: 22
Location: South Jersey

After the 200m finals at the National Championship in Charlotte, I was told that the times had been posted. I walked over to check the times with some of the other women who had just run in the final. The times has indeed been posted but none of us could read them - no one was wearing their glasses!! We all just started laughing. I flagged down a man who walked by wearing glasses and he read the times out to us. Sara Davis told us that it was God's way of reminding us that even though he was proud of us we're not "all that." I still chuckle when I think about it.

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Tue Feb 20, 2007 8:55 am

 

Another 200m story, this time from the 1994 European Veterans Championships at Athens, Greece. I was on an outer lane. I aligned my blocks at an extremely rakish (I was younger then) angle to run straight into the curve. I step back to admire my handiwork - and a female track official resolutely marches past me, picks up my blocks and plonks them down again to face straight forward. Taken by surprise I mumble: "Am I disqualified already?" "Why?". She said "No." "But your blocks were not straight." "It does not look nice."



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Mon May 24, 2010 1:16 pm

 
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Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:30 am
Posts: 28
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Some time back at a local masters championships an athlete at first competed in a plastic space-man like costume. Next day, it being 30 degrees C, the athlete sensibly switched to swimming trunks.

Had it been a woman, I would have accepted the bounties that God gives. But this very obviously was a male. Those swimming trunks were truly horrendous – pouch model Mallorca 1984.

In retrospect, I should have called the police or the neighbourhood watch. Instead I lodged a protest to the meeting organisers that the athlete be disqualified on the grounds that swimming trunks were not the required formal club dress.

A three-man Protest Jury formally convened. The Protest Jury ruled:

1. The championships were not of the dignity meant in the prologue to the national rules (presumably because they were local/masters championships). So the national rules concerning formal club dress did not apply

2. Anyway, the national rules state that a club team leader may specify a different club dress for a special day or event. The club team leader had followed that rule (presumably specifying swimming trunks for the championships).

Protest dismissed.

While I was alone later in the changing room later the members (I assume) of the Protest Jury dropped in one by one. They explained life to me:

First Protest Jury Member: the guy in the swimming trunks was obviously crazy. No point in us disqualifying a madman.

Second Protest Jury Member: you must be positive. It is wrong to protest because it creates a fuss and causes problems for everyone.

Third Protest Jury Member: opened the changing room door, took one look at me and disappeared out again.



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