Lorraine nailed her third individual American record. (She has many relays records.)
Oops, she did it again. Kathy Martin set another world record. Her fifth or sixth this season as a newbie W65. Bob Weiner shared details from Saturday’s meet in the D.C. area: “Kathy Martin, 65, from Northport, NY, set a new World Women’s 65-69 3000 Meter record of 11:42.8 today in the final day of the Potomac Valley Games, hosted by the Potomac Valley Track Club at TC Williams High School in Alexandria, VA. Martin, a many time world champion athlete and likewise many time overall and age group USATF Masters Athlete of the Year, told meet organizers she would attempt to break the world mark, and she did so. Martin broke the old record of 11:48.2 set July 25, 2012 by Angela Copson of Great Britain in Leicester, Great Britain. USATF Masters Record Chair Jeff Brower verified the record results. Also today, Lorraine Jasper, Birchrunville, Pennsylvania, 55, also a world masters champion, set an American women’s 55-59 mile record of 5:39.46. The old mark was by Lesley Chaplin, 5:41.71 July 14, 2015, set in Fort Washington, PA.” See results here.
Pete’s friend Diana Hernandez and son Sean teamed on this shot.
Among masters, nobody is more eloquent on the topic of doping than Pete Magill. On Facebook this week, he posted a note that drew scores of reactions (including one from me, in which I note the lack of monetary incentive for masters T&F athletes to dope, but acknowledge the masters LDR cheating issue with prize money at stake). In case you aren’t on FB or have access to Pete’s feed, here’s his initial offering: “Generation Dope: I’ve never been more frustrated with my sport in the 46 years since my first competitive race. Doping has corrupted the sport completely on the open level & has begun to pollute the masters level, too. Until the sport gets as serious about protecting the rights of clean competitors as it is about protecting dirty athletes (not to mention extolling their fraudulent performances), I think you can count me out. I’ll stick to club runs, local races, and coaching athletes who understand that running is about witnessing the amazing transformation you can bring to your own body, mind, and spirit–not about the synthetic potential of pharmaceuticals to fill your trophy cabinet while robbing clean athletes of their moment in the spotlight. Doping is cheating. Competing against dopers validates that cheating. And while we learn to live with a lot of unfairness in our lives, that shouldn’t extend to the experience that exists between the start and finish lines of a running race. … Follow this link and weep.” He later noted a story in The Guardian that talks about the linked study and its “scandalous” delay in publication.
M45 distance phenom Kevin Castille didn’t stop with his 14:11.09 track 5K WR in Nashville in June. USATF named him its Athlete of the Week on Wednesday after his 4:24 out-and-back road mile Friday in Michigan and a 49:03 10-miler Saturday also in Flint. Age-group records were set in both, USATF says. We hope he shows at indoor or outdoor masters track nationals or Malaga worlds in 2018.
Guillermo wears Mexican tricolores while standing with Toronto WMA meet guru Doug “Shaggy” Smith.
The day before Guillermo Guzmán Magaña of Mexico City won the M50 hammer at Toronto WMA regionals in mid-August, he won a runoff race against Sandy Pashkin of Oregon. He replaced her as president of the North and Central America and Caribbean Region of World Masters Athletics. Sandy had been prez since 2012, when she succeeded Canada’s Brian Keaveney. Today, two weeks later, the NCCWMA website still doesn’t reflect that change (or other election results). Whatever. But I wrote Guillermo to learn his plans and history. He’s still learning English, but he provided lots of info, including the fascinating tidbits that he broke the Mexican national hammer record dozens of times, threw at two IAAF world meets and has a sister who competed in the 2004 Athens Games. Separately, I learned from a masters mole that New York’s Marilyn Mitchell was elected vice president of the region. Other officers: Secretary is Juan Ordoñez of Mexico. Treasurer is Norm Creen of Canada, Vice president stadia is Juan Figueroa of Mexico. Vice president nonstadia is Vern Christensen of Canada. Vice president combined events is Bill Murray of Alabama. Central America Representative is Magdalena Molina of Costa Rica. And Caribbean rep is Neyda Morales of Puerto Rico. Records chair and women’s rep are still TBD. Anyway, here’s what I got from Guillermo, who also won the weight throw at Toronto.
West German Olympian Carlo Thrânhardt was a beast indoors, clearing a world-record 2.42 (7-11¼) in 1988. He’s still a beast. Seven weeks after turning 60, hejumped 1.70 (5-7) in Eberstadt. He passed two heights and then went straight for a WR-equalling 1.81 (5-11 1/4). He failed in three tries, but wow, what gumption. I’m told: “Of note, he had emergency heart surgery in the spring and had trained only two weeks prior to the meet.” The listed WR man, Russia’s Vladimir Kuntsevich, may see his five-year reign ending soon if Carlo gets his game back. Also of note: He jumps off his right leg and he’s one of only a half-dozen men who’ve cleared 2.40 more than once. Maybe he’ll give 2018 worlds a shot in Spain. (Hey, Mutaz Barshim, let’s see you jump 5-7 in 2051 when you’re Carlo’s age.)
NBC reports that the eye of Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas coast late Friday, and the Category 4 storm could cause “catastrophic flooding.” My thoughts are with all our masters friends, including Houston Elites led by Bill Collins and throwers such as Carol Finsrud. I hope y’all aren’t affected by the monster rains. Let us know how you’re doing. I’m also curious about how Seth Brower’s Texas meets are affected. His 5th annual Texas Vs. The World meet is October 14-15 at Texas State University in San Marcos. Other meets could be impacted as well. I hope everyone is safe and heeding official warnings (even via the Fake News outlets). Katrina should have taught us something. (Meanwhile, sorry, Rex, that they named a storm after you.)
A British site called Radio Times reports a “one-off” documentary focusing on four M90s at Perth worlds. It aired Thursday. We learn: “So unusual is the sight of grey hair in elite athletics that after Van Niekerk’s win, when (74-year-old coach) Botha ran to congratulate him, she was blocked by officials who didn’t believe she was part of the athlete’s entourage. It’s not surprising, of course; professional sport in general, and athletics in particular, will always be a young person’s game. … But The Pacemakers, a new one-off BBC2 programme from director Selah Hennessy, reminds us that sporting success comes in many forms – and that the wider world of athletics is a wonderfully broad church. The film follows four men as they prepare to compete at the 2016 World Masters Athletics Championships in Perth, Australia. The championships are for veteran athletes, over the age of 35; Hennessy’s subjects are all over 90.”
Scene from BBC2 “Pacemakers” documentary, including Yank Dixon Hemphill.
Down Under, athletes are running in conditions akin to late February Up Over. So behold what old David Carr did last week. His western Australian club reports: “With great conditions at Ern Clark Athletics Centre on Thursday night, David Carr set a pending new world record for the M85 mile with the fantastic time of 7:16.7(previous record 7:22.28 by Canada’s Ed Whitlock in 2016).” This appears to be the fourth WR set by David this year. “A special thank you to all those who came on the night expressly to help, support and run with David!” Aha! Illegal pacing! Just kidding. But we sure hope all the technicalities are met. On the Age-Graded Tables, 7:16.7 is worth an open time of 3:51.8.
What motivates you to stay in the game? For Czech star Barbora Spotakova, the double Olympic javelin champion, it’s throwing in a favorite stadium. At IAAF worlds, the 36-year-old was lovin’ it. London, that is. “The possibility of competing at this stadium once more motivated me to continue my career after the Rio Olympics,” she said in a Euro post. “Winning this, I got the best feeling in my life.” Her gold-medal throw of 66.76 (219-0) wasn’t a W35 world record, however. The listed WR is 68.34 (224-2) by Germany’s Steffi Nerius in 2008. (Barb’s season best is 68.26/223-11.) But talking of being “in this form at this age,” Barb told a Czech newspaper: “I really felt quite broken after qualifying. It is more and more difficult to recover from the competition. There are 300 things to do. You have to be cool. Of course, you also do not underestimate anything or anyone.”
A Nigerian news outlet notes the forthcoming 2017 African Masters [Athletics] Championships Aug. 25-27 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire [Ivory Coast]. Thirty Nigerian athletes will compete in the WMA regional meet, “Solomon Aliyu is the team coach, Abubakar Aliyu will be the team manager and Uruemu Adu is the head of delegation,” we learn. The African Masters Athletics website is skinny, and the Ivory Coast meet site is funky. So I’m not holding out much hope for expeditious results. But the Facebook page shows a snazzy medal. Maybe WMA Prez Stan Perkins will give a report. He goes everywhere.
Both sides of gold medal with nifty band for the African Masters Championships.
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
