Michigan nationals Day 1: Hunter, Bernhard and Krug set ARs
Late Thursday night, the USATF site for Michigan nationals had spotty and glitchy results — not even listing Gary Hunter’s M60 American record in the pole vault. But Indy sent Amber Brooks, its top Olympic Trials media maven, to Grand Valley State University to report his and two other ARs. She wrote: “The first American record of the day was broken in the M65-69 5000m when Tom Bernhard broke the listed National record of 18:07.04 set by Joe King back in 1991. Bernhard (Castro Valley, California) bested the 25-year-old record with a time of 17:44.83. … Another American record fell when Gloria Krug (New Oxford, Pennsylvania) entered the hammer throw circle, as she surpassed the listed W85-89 American record on each of her six throws, with her final throw of 18.55m/60-10 taking the record. The listed record of 15.03m/49-03.00 was set by Helen Beauchamp in 2007.” Weather was puffy cloud gorgeous in the 70s, but a steady cross wind bugged sprinters but blew behind jumpers, including vaulters.
Amber continued:
In the M60-64 pole vault, Gary Hunter (Fort Wayne, Indiana) came back from a right calf injury suffered two months ago to break the listed American record with a clearance of 4.05m/13-3.50. He made three attempts at the M60-64 world record of 4.33m/14-2.50, but just missed.
Gary told Amber:
“I wasn’t able to jump for the last two months. I was able to jump for the first time last Saturday and decided to push through my strained (right) calf. I wanted to go for the world record but I wasn’t playing the pole well enough.”
In topping John Altendorf’s M60 record of 4.04 (13-3) from 2010 Sacramento nationals, Gary now holds ARs in three age groups after his M50 4.75 (15-7) and M55 4.36 (14-3½). Germany’s Wolfgang Ritte has the listed M60 WR of 4.32 (14-2).
Gary turned 60 in late February. He still coaches kids, including some top Indiana preps.
In the 5000, Tom’s approximate splits were listed in results (click “Print results” and opt for PDF). After a 200 in 39.21, his laps were at 2:03.77 (1:24.56), 3:30.47 (1:26.72), 4:54.62 (1:24.14), 6:19.80 (1:25.18), 7:45.41 (1:25.61), 9:12.42 (1:27.01), 10:39.09 (1:26.67), 12:06.29 (1:27.20), 13:33.91 (1:27.62), 15:00.38 (1:26.47), 16:25.20 (1:24.82), 17:44.21 (1:19.01).
Also check out USATF.tv for selected races being archived from nationals.
I was thrilled to watch my dad, 87-year-old Al Stone, compete in his first-ever track meet. He took fourth in the shot. More details later.
6 Responses
I’m looking ahead to the M50 1500m and still trying to figure out why foreign athletes are allowed to bump USA athletes out of fast heat assignments. Is this a national championship or just another open meet? Times aren’t even verified. Let’s say 8 Canadians come down and enter with fast unverified seeds. Does that mean 4 USA runners run with 8 Canadians in the fast heat and the rest run in the slow heat? If foreigners are allowed to compete they should not be displacing Americans from competing for fast times, points and medals at their own national championship.
@Bill Newsham: I don’t have a problem with Canadians running in our nationals and regionals if they extend us the same courtesy (and being Canadian, and therefore courteous, they probably do). And foreign athletes do not bump US athletes out of medals because they are ineligible for them.
As far as unverified seed times and distances, it’s been known to happen all too often among our fellow
Americans. More than a few times I’ve raced in, say, a 400m with guys who seed themselves at :60, then don’t even break :70 in the race. I sometimes wish the USATF would demand verification at nationals, but someone would have to review these, and it’s probably just too much work.
@JES
I didn’t say they bump US athletes from getting medals…or points once the results are in. I said they displace them from competing for them. Points go 6 deep. In order to compete you need to be in the mix. Should #9 not be allowed to advance to an 8 lane final and a shot at 6th? I have a problem with that…and bumping USA athletes down to slower heats in distance races. This is OUR national championship.
With Gary Seto’s wonderful work in ranking performances there’s no longer a reason to accept seeded guess times for the nationals. All times should appear in the preceeding or current year’s rankings or an athlete should seed at No Mark or No Time. Thus if I had entered the men’s 65 100m hurdle race at this year’s nationals I would have had to enter at NT because I didn’t run the race last year or this even though I think I maybe coulda woulda run 18.5. Had I put down 18.5 on my entry other competitors should have been able to challenge it (up to some workable time before the event) and, at the least, I then should have been reseeded at NT. This is particularly relevant in the events where there are no preliminaries like the 300m hurdles (if in fact that is what we’re doing). No reason for us to deal with guesstimates in seeding at the nationals anymore.
JOHN Seto’s wonderful work in ranking performances!
Thank you, Peter. Apologies to John Seto.
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