National Senior Games Assn. already hyping 2011 Houston event
If you can put up with scenes of wimpy sports like horseshoes and bowling, this video is a treat. The NSGA is promoting its National Senior Games for late June 2011 in Houston. Track is featured (rightfully), with lots of throwers and runners. Even “pole vaulting” (Kay Glynn and her magical flying tresses) gets its own sports segment. In the soccer section, watch for trackster Kathy Jager. So who’s planning to go?
20 Responses
I support my local Sr. Games but not the NSGA. It’s just a personal thing for me. The NSGA doesn’t have the 5 and 10K as track events and that turns me off. There are plenty of 5 and 10s on the roads locally. I was at U of Houston for 3 years when the city was “tiny”. Now? Forget it. Smartty
I’ll be there…Can’t wait!
I agree with Smartty- I support the state senior games in my area – but not the National Senior Games.
I participated in the national games in Louisville and found them to be rather poorly organized with scheduling that appeared to be more for the convenience of the organizers than for the athletes. The longest track event is the 1500m, with the 5k and 10k being road races. There are no hurdles races, no steeplechase, and unless things have changed – some of the participants walked in the “longer races” 800 and 1500m and strolled around the track in the race walks. The NSG is all about “participation”. That is fine – I am all for encouraging participation-but the quality of competition tends to be less than at the WMA and USATF meets.
NSGA is advertising that for the Houston meet almost all sports will be held in air-conditioned venues. Hello – where is your a/c 400 m outdoor track?
With a choice of 3 major track and field meets next summer, I am choosing WMA in Sac (and hoping that they can manage to provide some shade) and the USATF Masters Outdoor meet at Baldwin-Wallace in Ohio. I am looking forward to running on what sounds like a very superior track at Baldwin-Wallace. It should be a very different experience than running on the not so superior and rather hard track at Sac State.
The NSG doesn’t offer the multi-events, which I prefer over the individual track events, so I will never attend their national meet. If I did decide to enter the javelin or the long jump, I wouldn’t want to compete in Houston in late June. Charlotte in 2006 was tough enough, no need to replicate the conditions next year in Houston.
I live here but I would compete anyway as there are just to few chances to have big events close by. I went to Louisville and Stanford and am sure I’ll go to the next one too.
Having it two weeks before WMA and the Houston heat should considerably kill participation.
Interesting how the NSGA promotional video shows a group of runners coming off a turn and going to the RIGHT! Do they run lap events in the opposite direction in Houston, like the toilets swirling counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere?
I live in Austin, TX so it will be nice to attend a National meet without the cost of Air and hotels. Of course it was nice to compete in the cool Bay Area weather in 2009. How is the June weather in Cleveland, OH?
Marty, are you referring to outdoor nationals for 2011? That meet will be right at the end of July (28th to the 31st) in Berea (Baldwin-Wallace College, which is supposed to have a wonderful track and a nice venue — see M. Harada, above).
Average lows and highs for both Berea and Cleveland are 62-81 for July and 61-79 for August. However, we have local knowledge from Jeff Mann (a strong 800-1500 runner) that humidity can be expected. I assume the identical temps means they are taken at the same place (Cleveland’s airport, which is south of the city and quite close to Berea).
My intent is to never miss a NSGA event. I love it and there is plenty of competition (as opposed to an earlier comment). The organization has been as good as most USATF National event’s organization considering the multitude of athletes attending. Last year’s T&F scheduling was the first time that the combined the 100, 200, and 400 meter events within three days rather than the usual four.
CA held state games this year the same day as the CA High School state meet. Any coaches that had successful athletes this year had to miss games. I had hoped to compete later out of state but was injured at USATF national meet. Technically I’m not eligible for Houston. I’m well ranked nationally in all events but can’t compete next year. Am I out of luck?
That humidity is relative (no pun intended). Northern OH can be bad, but nothing like Houston (my daughter lives there).
With regard to the runners coming off a turn and going to the right, if one pauses the video, one can see from the numbers that the segment is a mirror image.
I can’t speak for other age or sex groups, but M55 had plenty of competition at Palo Alto last year.
With the NSGA move to pay USATF to run its track meets, does that mean in the future there’s a chance the NSG will offer the full spread of events (5K, 10K, steeple, etc.?)
Randy Wilson you can go to the Nevada Senior Games being held the first weekend in October and qualify for the 2011 Games. Many Californian go there for late year results. Good luck and see you in Houston. I like Oscar, who compete Masters & Seniors find the competition just as keen. Be there!!
I noticed that NSGA has changed their rules regarding age groups. Rather than competing at your age on the first day of the games as in previous years, you will be competing as your age on 12/31/2011. A bit contrary to USATF rules.
Can a meet be USATF certified if it doesn’t follow USATF rules?
There’s exactly zero chance that it will effect me, but will records count?
I would love to participate if they had the hurdle events but no such luck. I hope they will expand the event schedule in the future to make it a full scale track and field event. I tried to talk to someone about it last year but was rudely dismissed on the telephone so I wait and watch to see if they expand so all senior track and field athletes can participate.
I would not hold my breath waiting for the NSG to expand the events for the senior games. Too many state games seem to have all they can do to offer the current number of events never mind have multi-events, steeplechase, and hurdles. Although I do not know why it would be so hard to add hurdles. And if they start adding events – then the middle distance folks – such as myself – will be campaigning for a 3k or 5k on the track etc – making the state senior games meets very long – and increasing the problems of scheduling for the NSG itself. As it is they split the track meet into two parts by age and then squeeze the events into 3 days.
Randy- If NV doesn’t work for you, come on out to Houston Oct 25th. Dennis and Ed should be there. I need you to throw a PR in the DT so I can throw even further. рџ™‚ You can have the SP and HT.
Peter- I think the 2013 Sr Games are in Cleveland.
You’re right, Marty; I missed your reference. Thought you were talking about a meet in 2011. Let me go to weather.com.
OK, I am back. Average low and high in Cleveland for June: 58 and 77. Record low for the month is 31. Sounds very good indeed.
It is obvious by your writing you are not a professional sports reporter. Either that or your copy editor needs to be replaced. My reason for saying this is that you deride other sports activities that you personally do not like – probably because you are unable to do them. A good professional sports reporter will never bad mouth another sport – you never know when you my have to write an article covering that sport and you surely don’t want to burn your bridges before you cross them. Just because you cannot perform a function is not reason enough to besmirch that function. I cannot do any sports anymore – broken back – but I never talk bad about any sport. It’s just bad juju.
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