masterstrack.com

This event should be a good one! (also it's close to Orono so you can double up on national championships


here's a link to the event 2007canadianmasters.ca

here's the brochure http://anb.ca/sjtc/2007canadianmasters/ ... le%20b.pdf

If I can swing the time off from work, I'm looking forward to doing both the Canadian and American meets. It'll make a great vacation for my family, and having competed at the CM Champs before, I can recommend their meet organization and their hospitality to everyone.

Bill Pontius

Hello "Cousins",

Sounds good. BUT.... I made representations to the organisers of both the Canadian and the US championships to be allowed to compete as "Open" in their summer 2007 T&F championships.

I say "allowed" because I declared up front that British Masters Athletics Federation (BMAF) Chairman Winston Thomas had disqualified me "from all masters competitions under the auspice of BMAF, both domestically and internationally" for one year ending 16 January 2008.

Back in March both the Canadian and the American masters organisations promised me an answer. Now we are at 2 May and neither the Canadians nor the Americans have responded.

I do not like that. First, my enquiry was serious. Second, as a Brit I expect my fellow Anglo-Saxon "cousins" (d'accord, je sais) to be polite and at least respond. Third, I have had enough of unpleasant masters athletics officials who treat me like dirt. Fourth, I regard myself as the plaintiff - the injured party - in this dispute with the BMAF. There is no reason to believe BMAF Chairman Winston Thomas' word over mine, or to regard me as anything but an potential asset at your masters athletics meetings.

I would appreciate your comments..

Edited by AT: If this sorts itself out satisfactorily, I will be pleased to edit/change/delete most of this post.

Anthony Treacher should be allowed to compete in both meets. Masters track and field is about competition— not personal politics. I don't fully understand the particulars of Mr. Treacher's disagreement with his organization. However, he clearly did not violate any rules of competition. He merely pissed off the powers that be in England. Americans had similar problems with the English ruling classes centuries ago.

Tom Fahey m59 thrower

Hello again "Cousins",

To be more precise about those Canadian and American officials who do not have the manners to respond to a well-meant enquiry. For the record:

Canadian official back in 10 February - "If you would be so good as to give me a little time, I will bring your situation to the attention of the executive of the Canadian Masters Athletic Association (CMAA), which meets on February 22, 2007. I understand what you have said about your "ban" by the BMAF, and I realize that, by its terms, it doesn't affect Canada, but I would like to check elsewhere, to see if it still has any affect on what we should do."
I thought he sounded sympathetic but he has not responded.

American official (very high up) on 28 March - "I'll have an answer by mid April."
That also raised my hopes. We are now at 7 May but he has not responded either.

I am not out to make trouble. I just want to run and jump. And this may still be just a misunderstanding. But time is passing. I do feel that your officials should at least respond to enquiries from prospective foreign guests.

Anthony Treacher
M65

You are correct, officials should respond. I got a response to a protest about 5 months after the protest. Some officials have a huge amount of integrity, while others have none. There's always a few bad apples . . .

Regarding your request, the USATF rulebooks say:

Article 1, Section 1, Rule 1
1. (b) The Masters T&F Championships are open to all member athletes of USATF or of other IAAF member federations.
2. Non-resident alien athletes, unless otherwise provided in these rules, may compete as invited guests only on a reciprocal basis.

So, #1 doesn't say you have to be member "in good standing", just a member. Now, regarding #2, how are foreigners handled in Britain?

Hello Cousins,

I have today received the following personal e-mail



What nice people! I must get to the 2007 Canadian Masters Track & Field Championships at all costs.

Anthony Treacher
M65 British Athlete

Hello Cousins,

Or maybe not so nice:



Well, the Canadian Masters could have informed me politely - as they promised - before I registered, couldn't they?

Just as well I was cautious enough to avoid this demeaning procedure with the Americans.

Anthony Treacher
M65 British Athlete (So long. Maybe wiser to stay at home and watch TV)

Cousins,

This is not a provocation. I am very disappointed in the Canadians. I was looking forward to Saint John. We have been to Canada before. Canada is interesting as “America-Lite”. It is a small country with a large area, a social conscience and international role-model aspirations. In that way, it is similar to my Sweden - food for thought.

I am a British national and I even believe in national entries and competing in the British colours. However, I am also doubly eligible to compete as a bona fide member of a British club and also of a Swedish club. That is not the point. The point is that there was nothing in my conduct at the 2006 World Masters Indoors Linz to justify suspending me from BMAF and WMA-affiliated athletics competition for 12 months.

The same unfortunately cannot be said of my BMAF British Team Manager. He invaded the competition area at Linz and broke the rules. He urged me and his own GBR M65 4x200m relay team to cheat. Obviously, he should have been suspended, not me. Instead the BMAF President and the BMAF Chairman, who is simultaneously the WMA Secretary, protect him. The BMAF-WMA Linz Scandal stinks. It now stinks all the way from Great Britain to Canada.

All this is not entirely the fault of you Canadians. Like other international masters officers you helplessly join the ranks of the incidental victims of the ineptitude of the BMAF Chairman-WMA Secretary. But still, you Canadian Masters officers have not treated me well.

I believe and want to believe that your sympathetic local Saint John organiser acted in good faith in encouraging me to register. It is his prestige-bound, at kindest bureaucratic, Canadian Masters top officials who are at fault. The rot obviously starts at the top BMAF-WMA level. High-up national officials then play follow-my-leader like non-thinking sheep. It is also a pity that our officers so obviously relish a juicy suspension and the opportunity to throw their weight about - clearly an attractive fringe benefit for these long-suffering, unpaid, volunteers.

I hope that masters athletics officers now understand that the times they are a changing. The Internet means that they cannot bully, cover-up and expect to get away with it any more.

As ever, I am open to dialogue and most of all a civilized resolution of the BMAF-WMA Linz Scandal. I humbly tried my best from the very start in March 2006. Now someone else should make an equivalent effort.

Anthony Treacher
M65 British Athlete

Cousins,

USATF and CMAA officers have made formal statements that Anthony Treacher is not eligible by IAAF rules to compete in the US and Canadian masters championships.

1. Statements such as "Mr. Treacher is suspended by his federation" and "Anthony Treacher is a British citizen who was banned from competition" are inaccurate and misleading.

Anthony Treacher is not suspended by his federation or any athletics body. According to the British Masters Athletics Federation (BMAF) Anthony Treacher is solely "disqualified from all masters competitions under the auspices of BMAF, both domestically and internationally".

2. The BMAF is NOT the IAAF-recognised national federation for a UK citizen. The IAAF-recognised national federation for a UK citizen is UK Athletics (UKA). Anthony Treacher is a member of a UKA-affiliated club. The IAAF-recognised national federation for a resident of Sweden is the Swedish Athletics Association. Anthony Treacher is a member of a Swedish Athletics Association-affiliated club. During 2007 - since his BMAF disqualification - Anthony Treacher has formally competed under IAAF rules, and will compete under IAAF rules, in Sweden and the UK.

The decisions of the American and Canadian officials would therefore appear based on subjective considerations other than the IAAF rules.

Is unfortunate that the BMAF Chairman, who is also the WMA Secretary, allows the USATF and CMAA officers to persist in their misconception.

Anthony Treacher

I have recently posted similar comments on my eligibility to compete in the US and Canada, notably at the end of: http://masterstrack.com/blog/001486.html#more

My comment starts

Cousins,

For a Canadian female coach's attitude to us masters athletes, check out the British Athletics Weekly journal forum http://www.athletics-weekly.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1 Topic "M65 sprinter banned for speaking out".

Ignore my boring stuff. The rest is well worth your trouble.

Anthony Treacher

Cousins,

As reported on this forum, USATF and CMAA officers have made formal statements that Anthony Treacher is not eligible by IAAF rules to compete in the US and Canadian masters championships.

My own masters federation, BMAF, has now even followed this up by vindictively threatening me with further disciplinary measures for trying to compete and competing in the UK, my home country. I therefore requested the national governing body for British athletics, UK Athletics (UKA), for a ruling on my eligibility to compete in Open competitions under UKA and IAAF rules. UKA replied immediately as follows:



So the CMAA and USATF officers had no formal grounds to deny me entry to their championships.

Anthony

And Anthony was eligible to compete in the USA (and presumably Canada too)

In a long overdue 180 degree U-turn on his May 28 2007 pronouncement in http://masterstrack.com/blog/001486.html "USATF officials: had no choice but to bar athlete"
USATF President Bill Roe sent me the following e-mail on 8 August 2007:


The above was welcome. But the US and Canadian masters athletics officers have caused me some considerable trouble. Maybe they will now have the guts to apologise to me on this forum? OK, sorry. That is obviously expecting too much…..

Perhaps instead the Americans and Canadians will now argue that they were misinformed? Although the BMAF documents stated quite explicitly that my disqualification applied to competitions under the auspices of BMAF and that applied solely to entries to BMAF-WMA-EVAA competitions.

Question is who then deliberately misled the gullible Americans and Canadians into believing Anthony Treacher was suspended by his national body? Was it the BMAF - who Anthony has complained about? Or was it the WMA - who Anthony has complained about? Contact either and the same person will answer the phone - Winston Thomas, BMAF Chairman and WMA Secretary.

Oh, not exactly. In the case of the WMA it may even have been a US and Canadian meeting of the minds with that ********* ****** from the WMA Laws and Legislation Committee. You know, the ***** I complained about for telling me "Also accept the fact that not everybody may be perfect, or as perfect as you think you are". Yes. That ****** could well have been behind it all. Confirmation anyone?

Anthony Treacher
M65 British Athlete and BMAF-designated Asshole

PS *** marks the spot edited out by AT, who doesn't want to end up in jail.

This topic, unfortunately, came to be dominated by my story and my name sticks out there as the last poster like a sore thumb.

I feel bad about this. I am sure the Saint John championships were a lot of fun and deserve better. Can't someone now come in and post something nice here about the Saint John championships so that my name disappears? Just anything, you know - highlights of the meeting, lobsters, fly-fishing, anything....