Make way for M45 sprint superstar Cebron Robinson
Who is Cebron Robinson? And why am I poking fun at him? Well, sorry. But there’s gotta be some consequence for submitting hilarious marks when entering a masters championship. The latest M45 status of entries page at USATF for the Boston indoor nationals indicates Cebron has submitted “qualifying marks” of 6.52 in the 60 and 20.50 in the 200. Of course, these are utter nonsense. The M45 world records are 7.02 and 22.57. I doubt Cebron even ran these times in the early 1980s, when he was a star running back for the Pittsburg State football team in eastern Kansas. In 2006, 6.52 would have ranked second on the USATF open list.
Cebron appears to be a masters newbie. He entered the Charlotte nationals last summer as an M40 sprinter, hurdler and jumper — but his name doesn’t show up in the the results. He also is listed as a scratch in the M40 200 at the 2004 Decatur nationals.
Cebron does have some recent marks online, however. As a road runner.
He’s listed as having run a 5K last summer in 28:55. Guess that was his base training for indoor sprints. Lose a few pounds, ya know.
The moral of all this?
If you enter masters nationals, give a realistic “qualifying mark.”
It should be of recent vintage. Unlike open nationals and the Olympic Trials, where qualifying marks are given close scrutiny, masters meets don’t require a qualifying mark. Marks are used for making balanced heats (if that). It’s a matter of trust.
So no more BS marks, OK?
12 Responses
Cebron ,Cebron ,Cebron,
Sprinter’s in all age divisions dont like a 28.55 5k runner to BS like you are doing .When and if you step onto the track in Boston’s Reggie Lewis Arena in Boston to face a very strong contingent of sprinters. You are going to find out that is not like hiding in the back of the pack road race and blending in with the crowd. You will be right there for all of us to see you leisurely doing your strut to the finish line. I am willing to say that Mitch Lovett can go one & one half laps to your one lap. Put your money where you mouth is!! In other words put up or shut up!!
Rizz Arthur Av. Bronx,N.Y.
In addition to silly qualifying marks that are better than world records, there are those who insist upon listing times they ran sometime way back when they were much younger, in shape, and probably running down hill. Those crack me up. Usually I try to list a recent time that I think I can actually run, this year I opted for listing no times at all – and had a heck of a time managing to force the online entry form into accepting my 00:00.00 times at none places – if you look for me I will be the one wearing the paper bag over my head trying to be a stealth runner – and fooling absolutely no one.
My 5k times are a state secret.
Maybe Cebron thought the distance at the indoor nationals is in yards – but then the the 6.52 and 20.5 would be pretty darn good for 60 yards and 200 yards in the M45 division.
I agree with Mary H. 100%. I have seen seed times and marks that haven’t been reached in YEARS. My guide is to only list a time or mark that I have achieved within the last year. Otherwise it gets an “NM.”
Herb, That could be true but then again it just goes to show you what “Cebron” knows about the 200 meter race because if he thought it was in yards it would be a 220 and there is a little difference in the time with 220 yards being longer therefore making his 20.5 seed time more ridiculous than it already is in the status of entrys for the Indoor National Championship.
I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t understand very well the English language.
But Ken, you write that Cebron was a runner back. So I understand that maybe he is running backward and not forward the 60 m and the 200 m. So the times make sense for me ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú I also, the older I became, has the feeling, that, when I try to run forward, the faster I run backward.
My suggestion is to use “Seed Times” of what has already been posted in 2006-2007 as actual marks on masterstrack.com rankings.
Otherwise, “nm”
(no mark)
Just a thought.
– Jeff Davison
I’ll have to disagree with you guys who use NM. When I publish a program for a meet, I like to use the seed times. It makes it more interesting to see some of the matchups. Very rarely are outrageous seed times submitted…like in this case. 🙂
I usually put down a seed time based upon what I have done fairly recently but this year for the National Masters meet in Boston I entered NM because I have not managed to beat any seed time I entered this winter – I am getting older and slower and hate to admit to that. And I looked at the seed times one competitor entered – and as usual it was a time this person had run several years ago and it literally was “down hill”. I guess I just got caught up in the annoyance of the moment and decided to just enter no mark. I have not run any races down hill lately so I did not have any silly times to enter. I agree with Doug that it is more interesting to see the match-ups and frankly it annoys me when folks are not willing to enter a time – just NM everything -at major meets. It really annoys me when they do it for the WMA meets – good grief is someone really going to spent the money to travel to a WMA meet and not have competed at all, Of course if one has been injured and just coming back to competition – that is one thing – one might feel silly putting down a time, height, distance etc – that was achieved before the injury/illness. However most of us have seed times – and ought to put them down – and that includes myself – even if I am running as if caught in a molasses flood.
FR: David E. Ortman (M53) Seattle, WA
From what I can tell, seed times are for assigning heats. There is no glory for being blown out of a heat or for sandbagging to blow others out of a heat.
But remember there are entire sections of the country that don’t run masters indoor track. Even in the Northwest where there are little to no masters meets it is very difficult to complete in open meets. So if someone wants to enter the Indoor Nationals, the choices are either to NM, put down what you did the last time you did the event indoors (even if several years ago), or put down what you realistically think you can run/jump. There is no real execuse for putting down your college times, though.
As a meet director who prefers to seed races at the last moment, I depend on the listed seed times heavily. The experienced folks know it is for their benefit because I will make the effort to put you next to somebody close to your ability. It doesn’t take you long to realize that it is of no benefit to try to run with someone who is over your head. Trust me, I’ve been left in the wake by the best. And to that superior athlete, you are simply a necessary annoyance. Put me in a race with Jeff Davison or Ken Stone and we’ll all be running our best. The court of public opinon should count for something here. Too many people don’t show up for Masters meets because they are afraid of being embarrassed. We are a friendly group of people. I’ve never seen anybody criticized for finishing last in a race. But if you deliberately lie to the folks that should be your friends, that is a good way to get shunned.
SO… I take it he was a no-show.
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