Mexico’s masters nationals includes Canadian guest
Mexico has a thriving masters program, it appears. This past weekend, they held their own masters nationals, with complete results posted now. The three-day Campeonato Mexicano de Atletismo Master 2006 was held in Guadalajara, Jalisco state — which is nearly a mile high in elevation. And while marks were uniformly mediocre (by Norte Americano standards), I was very impressed by the depth of the fields. You didn’t just show up and collect a medal. You had plenty of competition in most events and age groups.
The meet also attracted at least two foreigners — M60 jumper and decathlete Charles Frederick from Canada and W45 Retana Vargas of Costa Rica.
(July 13 update: Jerry appears to be right about Mr. Judson. The Mexican results are confusing.)
The Mexican meet organizers also did a nice job in terms of entry info – listing all athletes with their dates of birth, for example. Wish our nationals would do that all the time (instead of rarely).
A list of medalists-by-state also was interesting — showing which states were most powerful. I gather that the richer north dominated. The host state Jalisco collected 193 medals. The Yucatan? Five medals.
In any case, muy bueno, mi amigos. And buena suerte to all the rest of the season!
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A contingent of Mexican Masters makes it up to Austin Texas (from Monterey Mexico) every year for one of Seth Brower’s meets. They are very enthusiastic competitors, and are a welcome addition to the mix. Most impressive this year was a discus and shot putter with a prosthetic leg. No shuffling, or standing throws in the discus either. He did a full spin! Very impressive.
Unless I’m mistaken, the Canadian competitor was actually Fred Judson. He’s from Edmonton and is a pretty good multi-event guy. He’s also a political scientist at the U of Alberta who specializes in Latin American/Mexican politics.
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