Marisa Hanson claims her week of fame in USATF
USATF names an Athlete of the Week about 52 times a year, and sometimes perplexes folks. This week’s honoree, 42-year-old miler Marisa Hanson of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., is a plausible pick. She set an outstanding meet record at the hallowed Hartshorne races last weekend. But another good choice would have been Carolyn Smith-Hanna of Pittsford, N.Y., who set a world indoor W55 record of 5:43.75 at Hartshorne (taking 12th out of 12 in the race won by Hanson).
This helps USATF make up for its oversight of several weeks ago, when it failed to honor double record-setters Alisa Harvey, Leslie Chaplin-Swann or Neni Lewis.
Leslie will have another shot. She’s entered in the WMA world indoor championships in Linz, Austria. (Not sure about the others, since USATF has yet to release the Team USA roster.)
Carolyn, BTW, just nipped the previous record of 5:43.96, set by Joni Shirley of San Diego. Joni is the wife of USATF masters muckymuck Graeme Shirley.
This is about the sixth or seventh time a masters athlete has won USATF weekly recognition. The first was M45 jumper Willie Banks in July 2001. In 2004, honorees included W70 hurdler Flo Meiler. Last summer, it was M40 sprinter/hurdler Willie Gault. A few months later, it was W40 distance great Colleen De Reuck.
So lets put our hands together for the latest masters star.
Way to go, Marisa!
One Response
my guess is that Marisa Hansen was honored because she “won” the elite women’s mile where as Carolyn Smith-Hanna finished 12th in that “race, and that it was a multi-age group event seems not to register. It seems not to occured to USATF that Carolyn Smith-Hanna set a world age group record – they see only the “first” to cross the finish line and not the age group accomplishments. I think Marisa Hansen ran a remarkable race – and she set a meet record for the event – great job – but the older you get, the less likely USATF is to acknowledge age group accomplishments when they are achieved in the midst of a multi-age group event. Had Carolyn Smith-Hanna’s accomplishment occured in a 55 and up race, or first in the non-elite women’s race – perhaps more attention might have been paid – but “sheeze” she was “last” in the race – good grief -in the eyes of the vision impaired in Indianopolis – well I will not write more except to say that both women achieved very fine goals.
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