Site of National Senior Games in 2013: Baldwin-Wallace College.
Two years ago, I gave the National Senior Games Association grief for announcing a venue change — switching the track meet portion of the National Senior Olympics from Houston to Humble, Texas, about 19 miles away. Now we learn they’ve done it again — moving the late July 2013 meet from Cleveland to the western suburb of Berea, about 16 miles away. Two athletes who noticed the change have written me or the NSGA to complain. Masters Moles 266c(3) and 76664a shared their concerns this month, focusing on travel and facility issues.
Four buff M40s runners averaged under 2 minutes each to claim a world record in the 4×800 Friday night at the Armory Track in Manhattan. A slickly produced video shows pieces of the relay and an interview with the men: Scott Weeks, Erik Nedeau, Chris Simpson and Mark Gomes, who was hawking his new book “Faster Than Forty.” Armory interviewer Mike Rice asked a few questions, and the time given was 7:58.12, which crushes the listed indoor WR of 8:07.48 by Landis, McGinty, Forde and Berra in 2009. (Details on that WR.) The listed outdoor 4×8 WR is 7:54.17. Haven’t seen results posted yet, however. And ratification is always iffy for pickup teams. But congrats!
Eve Pell in 2009 in Bay Area home, where she wrote a Bronx memoir.
It’s one of the sweetest stories you’ll ever read about masters in love. Despite its sad ending, Eve Pell’s first-person essay in The New York Times Thursday will remind you why running in old age is no different from that of youth. Great headline, too: The Race Grows Sweeter Near Its Final Lap. Eve writes: “We traveled to Italy to compete in the 2007 World Masters Athletics Championships (what I fondly call “The Geriatric Olympics”), where we both won gold medals in our respective age brackets: 70 to 74 for me and 80 to 84 for Sam. At home, we planted a garden; I finished writing a memoir. Every morning we did push-ups; every evening we sat on the rim of our bathtub and flossed our teeth. He called me “sweetheart.” He never forgot an anniversary, including our first movie date. I gave him flowers on Betty’s birthday.” Read the whole story and be glad she’s one of us. (And thanks to lovebird Nadine O’Connor for the link!)
John Altendorf is 66 and doesn’t have the energy of a 16-year-old. He just jumps as high as one. How does one vault 12-8 under such conditions? Very wisely, it turns out. John graciously responded to my request for details on his indoor WR at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno. John writes: “A vaulter, especially an older vaulter, has only a certain number of ‘full energy’ jumps before his performance begins to diminish—for me, about eight jumps. The height progression planned by the competition organizers (10-6, 11-2, 11-11, 12-4 and 12-8) fit perfectly with my game plan for attempting to regain the record. Ideally, I would make each of the first 3 heights on the first jumps, allowing me to attempt the record on my fourth jump. Even if I took three jumps to clear the record height, I would be able to perform at my best energy level. Although I made the first three heights on first attempts, at the lowest height my jump was sloppy. But because it was relatively low, I was able to save the jump and clear the bar.”
Saying he has the full support of his federation and the interest of local government, long hurdler Tony Echeandia has announced another try at a Puerto Rico Masters Grand Prix meet. In June 2012, he reported the meet in Mayaguez was canceled after only 40 signed up. Now, Tony says local authorities “are asking to put this event together, as have a lot of great athletes I have spoken to (ie. Aaron Thigpen). … I will have the website updated in the next few weeks and I ask that people interested to enter the meet instead of waiting to find out who is entering. The cost in letting us know who is interested is ZERO DOLLARS!…. This year we have more money for more events and are tentative dates are September 7th and 8th — more than enough time to recover for worlds.” Prize money? Tony says: “Yes, the prize money is the same as last year and ages haves not been established yet but mostly likely it will be for everyone. Also air fares and hotels are very cheap in September.”
Date on this screen grab is outdated. New date is early September.
Sorry, milers. This weekend belonged to the vertical jumpers. Besides John Altendorf and his M65 WR in the vault at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, we’ve been informed that Jill Starkey jumped 3.52 (11-6 1/2) at the same venue for a W40 American record, topping the listed mark of 3.50 (11-5¾”) by Brenda Bumgardner in 2010. Now comes word from Jim Barrineau that fellow M55 Bruce McBarnette on Sunday set an incredible world indoor record 1.87 (6-1 1/2) at the Sportsplex Track Showcase All-Comers meet in Landover, Maryland, site of the 2013 USATF Masters Indoor Championships. Bruce beat the listed WR of 1.85 (6-0 3/4) by Russia’s Vladimir Kuntsevich in 2008. Jim writes: “His progression was 1.67(xo), 1.72(o), 1.77(o), 1.82(o). 1.87(xxo), 1.92(xxx). I tried to keep up: 1.57(o), 1.62(ppp), 1.67(o), 1.72(ppp), 1.77(xxp), 1.82(x). Slightly hyperextended my back at 1.67, but had a big clearance so took some chances. Bruce rattled 1.87 and took so-so attempts at 1.92 (6-3 1/2).” Bruce turned 55 in October, so he’ll likely get the M55 outdoor WR as well — the 1.84 (6-0 1/2) by Germany’s Thomas Zacharias in 2006. Here’s the record jump, shot by Jay Wind:
Brad Barton, at right, leads the field in Boise State mile. (Photo by Matt Garner)
After coming pretty close to John Hinton’s M45 indoor mile world record 4:20.18) at Boise State, Brad Barton informs us that he’ll try again Feb. 2, writing: “I sure appreciate the encouragement and guidance I’ve received from your blog followers. I have been in contact with Steve Vaitones and he has invited me to Boston on February 2 for the Grand Prix Masters mile field he is putting together. Yesterday was fun in Boise. I think there’s still some more in the tank. Now I just have to stay healthy.” Brad also shared a blow-by-blow account of his Saturday mile: “The Idaho Center in Nampa is about 2,700 feet elevation. This is the same facility that hosted the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships a couple of years ago. It is a 200m banked Mondo surface track. I had the slowest seed in the fastest of three collegiate one-mile men’s heats. There were 10 other competitors in my heat.” Here’s Brad in Idaho:
World champion John Altendorf took fourth Saturday in the masters event at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada. But at 66, he was king of the hill by clearing 3.86 meters (12-8) and crushing the listed M65 world indoor record of 3.72 (12-2 1/2) by fellow American Arthur Parry in 2011. (John jumped an unratified 3.80 (12-5 1/2) a year ago in Oregon and also a cool 3.70 in March 2011.) John also holds the listed M65 outdoor record of 3.89 (12-9) . Overall winner Tom Williams beat longtime vault star Gary Hunter at the Pole Vault Summit as both cleared 4.02 meters (13-2 1/4) at the annual jumpfest. See masters (and other) results here.
John blasted over bar at 2010 nationals. He’s still the bomb. (Hence headgear.)
Running against collegiate kiddies Saturday, Brad Barton fell 1.4 seconds short of the listed M45 indoor world record in the mile, clocking 4:21.58 at the Bronco Invitational at Boise State University, according to these meet results.That race overshadowed the M40 debut of Scott Weeks, who won the M40 elite mile at Saturday’s Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile race at Cornell University’s Barton Hall in 4:23:39. Scott beat former Hartshorne victor Nick Berra, who finished in 4:29.12, according to results shared by Tom Hartshorne. Scott is a former rabbit in the elite men’s
race, so congrats on finally being able to pace the race to the end. Alisa Harvey, 47, took the W40 elite race in 5:17:55, ahead of Jill Vollweiler, 44, who ran 5:36:04. Bill Zink, 52, won a battle with Vince Friel, 4:51:33 to 4:52:04 in the M50 elite race, and Lorraine Jasper, 51, ran away with the W50 elite race in 5:29:54 — more than 20 seconds ahead of Ithaca’s own Gillian Haines-Sharp in 5:51:40. The top age-graded performance (92.4%) was by Nolan Shaheed, who was sixth in the M50 elite race in 5:07:54.
Today (Saturday) brings the 46th racing of the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile at Barton Hall, Cornell University. Organizer Tom Hartshorne, son of the namesake Jim, sent me heat sheets and wrote: “As you can see, we have lost a number entrants in the last day and many more earlier in the week primarily due to the flu. Last year it was a Midwestern storm that knocked out those trying to connect through Chicago and Detroit and this year it is the flu. But we still have excellent races in all of our sections. Women’s elite 50s mile will feature a battle of two previous winners, Lorraine Jasper and Suzanne Myette, followed closely by local Ithaca talent Gillian Haines-Sharp returning to race after a several year hiatus.”
A great finish from 2010: Nick Berra (left) nips Tracy Lokken in M40 mile.
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...]
