Jeff has the guns for records. He’ll shoot for M80.
M75
Jeff Harrell’s local paper in Texas
tells how he saved his best throw for last this season, tossing his discus 42.44 meters (139-3). That’s close to the American record of 43.83 (143-9) by
Roger Busch in 2016. “The throw is the longest by a Texan in 75-79 Masters history and third-longest by an American in the age classification,” says the story, which quotes Jeff as saying: “Worldwide, there are 17,448 athletes from 107 countries listed on Masters Track and Field. The top 300 discus throwers are ranked in my age group of 75-79 and I’m ranked No. 2. Not bad for a guy that never threw a discus until I was 60 years old.” Wow! The story adds: “Harrell is contemplating a return around four years from now to take part in the 80-85 age group, if he still ‘feels good.'” Talking about Senior Olympics, he says: “No one holds the title and record in three different age groups. I do in two and would like to be the first to hold three.” Pace yourself, champ. Stay in shape.
What would we do without mastersrankings.com confirming what athletes do?
October 11, 2017
No Comments
Vin Lananna brought his “listening tour” to San Diego on Sunday, and I joined a dozen local USATF brass at a shoe store where we sat in a semi semicircle on wooden folding chairs and peppered the prez with comments and questions. Since I was covering for Times of San Diego (see my story), I mostly kept quiet. But I got in some “journalistic” Qs in a one-on-one afterward (see my video) — after the group got kicked out of the store to make way for a yoga class. My masters question was: Can you guarantee that 2021 IAAF worlds in Eugene will host masters exhibition events? He said yes without saying yes, noting how masters are embedded in lots of UofO meets. But he said the LOC has to be asked. So listen up, WMA. Start thinking about events at Hayward Field. (And listen to audio of the meeting, starting after 4 minutes.)
Vin Lananna, in Nike shirt, was personable in San Diego, and actually did listen.
October 8, 2017
No Comments
Coach Joy Upshaw, whose USATF roles are too numerous to mention, finds time to compete somehow. And when she does, it’s serious. After making the 360-mile trip south last weekend from the SF Bay Area to run the Sri Chinmoy meet in Glendale, she scorched the 100 in 13.27 seconds to claim the W55 American record (beating the fabled 13.30 by Phil Raschker in 2002). Even though she’s gone faster (at 2016 Mt. SAC Relays), USATF on Thursday named her USATF Athlete of the Week. If you count M35 Justin Gatlin, Joy is the seventh masters-age athlete to gain the honor this year — after Kathy Martin, Allen Woodard, Bob Lida, Julia Hawkins and Kevin Castille. When news of her AR was shared on her track club website, the notice said: “With her good running form — that she coaches in Jackrabbits — she was able to focus and race to a win and a W55-59 age group 100m American record! She made sure to thank the officials, meet directors and her competitors, because as we know in Jackrabbits class, having good sportsmanship — no matter what place you finish — is important.” Nice. Even records are teachable moments.
Joy in her element — coaching the Jack Rabbits youth club near Stanford.
October 6, 2017
7 Comments
M40 Hondo Salgado handles 98-pounder at Florida beach meet. Carol Dixon photo
Results of the inaugural
Ultra Weight Pentathlon World Championships in Florida and a throws meet in Texas show great marks. On Oct. 1 in Lockhart, Texas, W60
Carol Finsrud went crazy at her hometown Atlas Field Series. “Word out of Texas has it that Carol Finsrud has just torched the W60 American record in the Throws Pentathlon currently held by
Myrle Mensey,”
Bob Cedrone posted on the masters throwers page on Facebook. “The existing record of 4451 points, which Carol just missed at the 2017 USATF Masters Throws Championships with her 4417 total, now moves to an other worldly 5060 points (!) pending approval by the Masters Records Committee. I think that this may also be a World Record as well, but I need some back up on that claim. WOW!” Carol also recorded a 40.81 (133-10) discus fling, which crushed the listed WR of 39.24 (128-9) by Germany’s
Karen Illgen in 2002. Turns out the meet fell short of record specs. Carol posted: “Thank you for all of the kudos! I can’t believe how on I was last Sunday at Atlas Field! We did not have weights and measures, three certified officials etc. so no records will be submitted. It was fun and it brought a big smile to my face!” But thank goodness
results are posted at mastersrankings.com for historians of the event.
Read the rest of this post »
October 5, 2017
4 Comments
Damien leads Striders teammate Robert Richardson in a 200-meter dash.
wasn’t the only masters trackster
debating President Trump’s denunciation of NFL “SOBs” for not standing during the national anthem. Also posting on Facebook was his clubmate and relay teammate
Damien Leake, a fellow Strider and national sprint champion. When I saw Damien’s post, which indicated he has been sitting for the anthem since April 4, 1968, I asked for details — assuming his protest was related to
Harry Edwards and his
Olympic Project for Human Rights (which led to
Tommie Smith and
John Carlos and their gloved fist salute at Mexico City). But Damien was 15, attending the New York
High School of Performing Arts. Not Olympic-class. His motivations were grief and disgust. April 4 was the MLK slaying. I tell his story on MyNewsLA.com.
See it here. Below is Damien’s raw response to my questions via Facebook. Consider this the first post fulfilling my new mission statement:
“Masterstrack.com aims to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted while showcasing and watchdogging the sport of adult age-group track and field.”
Read the rest of this post »
October 4, 2017
14 Comments
Google also lets you search pictures of a subject, like “Bob Lida.” Just click on “Image” tab.
I’ve re-installed a search function to this site, at upper right, using the free Google Custom Search
WordPress plug-in. Try it out. The previous search tool led to a crash of the site, but I futzed around on what to replace it with. Finally I decided to go with the flow and the Evil Empire. I
watched a YouTube video to make sure I installed it correctly. Besides displaying results from masterstrack.com, the custom search displays links to
mastershistory.org, the USATF-supported archive site. But even without this tool, you can do a custom search of ANY site on the Web on your own. In Google, type:
site:TheSiteYouWantToSearch.com keyword keyword. Then hit RETURN/ENTER or click GOOGLE SEARCH. Voila! Now I’ve saved myself time by being able to search my own site. (Helpful, since I’ve forgotten 80 percent of what I’ve written over the years.) Another great resource is
archive.org. To look for my pre-1999 posts (when
Dave Clingan and I registered masterstrack.com), type in
members.aol.com/trackceo/index.html — the page that started this whole mess. (It was AOL’s Member Home Page of the Month for November 1996. So there.) Lemme know if you have any problems with the new Google search. I can tweak settings.
October 3, 2017
2 Comments
Facebook photo of Joy running at Sri Chinmoy.
Since turning 55 in February 2016,
Joy Upshaw has run the 100-meter dash at least 20 times, according to mastersrankings.com. On Sunday, she finally achieved her goal — beating
Phil Raschker’s listed American record of 13.30 set at 2002 Orono nationals — a world record at the time. (It’s now held by France’s
Nicole Alexis at 12.80.) Joy clocked 13.27 at the USATF-sanctioned
Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence Masters Track and Field meet at Glendale High School near Los Angeles.
(See results here.) Joy also ran a wind-hampered 50 in 7.28 and 200 in 27.69. She clocked 13.61 (again into a wind) in the 80-meter hurdles and also won the long jump at 4.51 (14-9 3/4). Joy lost her dad,
Monte, in July. I’m sure he was cheering from Heaven’s Bleachers along with fellow prep record-setter
Jesse Owens.
Joy with meet officials, including starter Andy Hecker (in red), record form.
October 2, 2017
6 Comments
Louise holds up Carolina Godiva TC coffee mug.
W75 sprinter and thrower
Louise Guardino keeps a lively track blog. She recently
jotted down her memories (along with dozens of photos) of Baton Rouge nationals — nearly 7,000 words’ worth. (And she did this TWICE, after the computer ate her first post.) She drops a lot of names — many of them her heroines. At one point, she wrote: “While I was taking off my shoes, I was talking to
Jeanne Daprano. She asked me to take off her back bib. She then threw it away. The front with her name was already trashed. Whoa, says I. May I have it? She graciously gave it to me. (This is like having a Bolt bib.)” On Facebook a couple weeks ago, she wrote about another outing: “Following in the tracks (😂 ) of my track cohorts — NC Senior Games State Finals were held at Durham County Stadium today. I ran 4 events in this order: 100m (18.94), 400m, (barf, barf, barf), (1:43.16) 200m (42.38) and 50m,(10.31) then did shot put 20′ 3.5″) and discus (47.1′). 1st in all except the shot, in which I was 2nd. My Achilles said HELLO during the 200m. Ice was welcome when I got home. Unlike
Barbara Knight Warren, I did not do and would never do, 11 events. Six and done!” I salute Louise for writing down her memories. This is important for family history as well as the archives of our sport.
Read the rest of this post »
October 1, 2017
3 Comments
Veteran readers know what to expect from this site: the unexpected. Also recurring rants on records, quickie Q&As, self-deprecating humor and links to obscure foreign sites. But
Janet Johnston, whose
comment was No. 32,773 here since January 2003, makes a good suggestion: Why not a mission statement? “Your mission statement would help your readers know what we can expect in your blog,” she writes in the wake of my notorious
Ruggless posts. So OK. Let’s do this. I’ve changed my top-of-the-site descriptor to say: “Ken Stone’s hobby blog for showcasing and watchdogging adult age-group track and field.” (The previous: “Older, slower, lower: Ken Stone’s world and USA home page for adult age-group track and field.” And before that: “Older, slower, lower: Independent world and USA home page for adult age-group track and field.”) But what is my mission beyond being a cheerleader and muckraker? Well, I aim to be honest, fair and transparent (See SPJ’s
Code of Ethics). And fearless while boasting a thick skin (at the risk of hurting my 100-meter time).
Read the rest of this post »
September 29, 2017
7 Comments
Oh drat. M70 sprinter John Wasko had a chance to be the only American to compete at the Asian Masters Athletics Championships in northeast China. But alas, he tells me via FB, he got his invite less than 30 days before the meet, which ended this week. “Not much time for travel plans, ticketing, visa and accommodations,” John said. “Plus there was a requirement for a country sponsorship letter. Not much time for all of that. So maybe next event. More cordial was the African Masters in Ivory Coast. Cost was prohibitive this year. However, the Oceania Masters takes place in Dunedin, New Zealand, in January. I’m planning to attend. New Zealand and Australia have excellent masters programs.” Had he gone, however, he said: “There was also a provision that my results would be recorded but not in the official results. American Samoa is not a member of the Asian track federation. I really didn’t about that so much. So their invitation was cordial and welcoming.” I asked about where he lived, and he said: “American Samoa. We are a US territory. Our ‘track’ is cement!!!” According to his LinkedIn profile, John was M65 champion at the 2013 Hawaiian Senior Olympics in the 100 (16.56), 200 (35.02) and 400 (79.16).
John Wasko now looks forward to Oceania Masters WMA meet in January.
September 28, 2017
One Comment
