World Masters Athletics is calling for bidders to host the 2021 indoor and 2022 outdoor world championships. The deadline is fast approaching: Sept. 1, 2017. So if any American sites have any interest, it’s time to boogie. If an indoor meet requires multiple venues, the best are in the Boston and New York areas. Maybe Landover has a nearby arena in Maryland. Winning outdoor worlds is a long shot for the United States, since Toronto is hosting 2020. But why not Oregon’s Hayward Field for 2022 — a year after IAAF Eugene worlds? Even the Eurovets would love that! (Both meets will be awarded at 2018 Malaga worlds.) Bid guidelines are here. (Says expect a budget of as much as $450,000.) For more info, write WMA Secretary María Alfaro at wmasec16@gmail.com.

I smile in recalling Ray Bower’s butt. We shared a dorm room at 2005 Hawaii masters nationals, and his cute little rump stuck out from the bed covers across the room. More important was the fact he could move that butt on the track — and he became a friend as we reunited at nationals. On April 11, I learned Friday, he died in North Carolina at age 93. Cause wasn’t given in this obituary. His funeral was Thursday in Mount Lebanon, southwest of Pittsburgh. He was a sprinter who won at least one M75-and-over 100 at the Penn Relays. He also ran at several world WAVA meets, including the first one in Toronto — back in 1975. (He was fourth in the M50 100 after a 12.0 semi.) At Penn in 1999, he won the 100 in 15.54 at age 75. In Honolulu, we went on a memorable day trip, climbing to the top of Diamond Head overlooking the coast. (See my photo gallery.) I’ll miss Ray for his stories about college football officiating. And for his great companionship. His last race may have been in 2014, when he ran a 200 in 38.25 as an M90. Damn impressive. Thanks for the memories, Ray.

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A couple days ago, the Facebook group for European Masters Athletics went from open to closed — meaning new members have to be approved by the admins. One reason for the change is the apparent effort to purge critics of EMA President Kurt Kaschke of Germany, including German masters track blogger Axel Hermanns. His recent post at Lampis.net is headlined: “Kaschke has abolished freedom of expression as an ‘Erdogan for the poor,’” a reference to the Turkish president gaining dictator powers. Also noted is the erasure of a mini-scandal — that Finnish delegates didn’t attend the March 2016 General Assembly in Ancona, Italy, where a new EMA Constitution was debated. A screen shot of the FB page on March 23 shows an image of a “vote list” with no Finns present. But Vesa Lappalainen, the former vice president of EMA, reportedly insists that his fellow Finns were present. A well-placed source tells me: “The same mysterious disappearance happened on EMA website, where all news from April 2 (2016) till December 31 (2016) are deleted.” Of course, nothing is EVER fully deleted from the Intertubes. You can still see many or all of those missing posts via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. So nah-nah-nah-nah-nah! Meanwhile, a new “Friends of EMA” Facebook page has launched. Anyone can join.

At 2015 indoor nationals, M40 Musa Gwanzura made up a 20-yard gap on the last lap to win the 3000 in 9:08.88. (See the video.) No wonder he made it look easy. He’s a former 4:04 miler who helped Abilene Christian win an NCAA Div. II indoor title in the late 1990s. Now he’s getting attention from his local North Carolina paper for having taken second in the Daegu 3000 in 9:00.34. He still runs for his native Zimbabwe, but he’s made his home in America since his 20s. “I’m really an 800- or 1,500-meter guy,” he told the paper, “but with age when you run races you lose all of your speed. These legs man, they complain now. That’s the issue. I can still run a pretty good mile, but it’s the work I put in now. There’s some risk for getting injured when I do my speed work.” He’s not a Yank for affiliation purposes, but he’s one sharp American runner.

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Mark Cleary has lost his USATF role as coordinator of the Masters Invitational Program. Rex Harvey, the new national masters T&F chair, says Joy Upshaw will take over in a newly reconfigured Exhibition Events program. I’m hoping to learn details on this soon. Mark — who had run the program for better or worse since 2000 — had applied for the position, but wasn’t chosen, Rex says. “We are looking forward to renewed energy and innovation in the new program,” Rex says. “It is one of our best promotion opportunities, so we want to get it right. As to why not Mark, you would have to ask the Executive Committee.” I’ve also queried Mark for his reaction. He hasn’t responded either. Over the years, Mark has taken a lot of flak (including from me) on the narrow choice of events — mainly sprints and middle distances. But the SoCal TC coach had good explanations for the focus. (A few hurdles events also were contested). And he had to knock heads more than a few times with USATF committee chairs to get events into the Trials. The exhibitions were at open nationals, indoors ands out, and places like Mt SAC and Drake. The first exhibition was a mixed-gender 200 at indoor nationals. (See results through the years.) Mark is still listed as coordinator in the USATF Organizational Directory. That should be updated ASAP. The lone remaining 2017 event listed is the men’s and women’s 400s at Sacramento open nationals. Four men and four women are currently listed as applicants.

M75 Olympian Peter Snell, one of New Zealand’s greatest middle-distance runners, says he and his wife, Miki, will compete at the World Masters Games in Auckland opening Friday. Too bad it’s only in table tennis. At least we have W100 sprinter Man Kaur to cheer. The New Zealand Herald reports: “Man Kaur has travelled more than 13,000km to reach Auckland, so what’s 100 metres more for this remarkable 101-year-old athlete from India. Kaur and her 79-year-old son Gurdev have arrived for the World Masters Games, where she will compete in the 100m, 200m, javelin and shot put. After 19 hours of flying over two days, Kaur entered the Auckland Airport arrival hall in a wheelchair and happily took questions from NZME, with her son translating for the Games oldest competitor.”

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At 47, world champion sprinter Reggie Pendland is way too young to be talking about “bucket lists.” But I get what he means when he says he’s always wanted to run at the Mt. SAC Relays. Even through the meet is away from Hilmer Lodge Stadium for the second year in a row (while it’s being rebuilt), Reggie still had a blast at Saturday’s event in Torrance — flying in from Dallas the night before to run on the brand-new track at El Camino College. He won the masters men’s 100 in 11.23. W40 Cynthis McManee made it 2-for-2 for Southwest Sprinters TC members when she won the women’s 100 in 13.18 — into a 0.9 mps wind. She’s a Perth worlds finalist. But the biggest surprise of the day was Brian Duff, running away from a top-notch field to win the men’s 800 in 2:00.68 after crossing the 400 in 58.8. His PR is 1:50 from his Georgetown days. He followed WR man John Trautmann there. The women’s 800 went to Santa Monica High School track coach Tania Fischer of Janes Elite Racing Team, who overhauled W40 Vanessa Juarez, who led for much of the race. Tania clocked a nifty 2:29.35. On Thursday, M60 John Goldhammer won the masters hammer when a second entrant went to El Camino College. The event was actually held at the original site in Walnut, California. John threw 53.76 (176-04). Here’s my highlight reel, with photos by the award-winning Chris Stone:

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Like World Masters Athletics, the Eurovets hold general assemblies. I’ve obtained the booklet for one such gathering at the March 2016 indoor championships in Ancona, Italy. Notable on Page 10 of the EMA booklet are these “final comments” on the 2015 Lyon world meet. EMA President Kurt Kaschke of Germany writes: “Lyon had a great atmosphere but caused also many problems: the transportation of athletes through the city, the results coming out very late and sometimes wrong, food and beverage offer was poor, no really meeting tent for socialising athletes … For me as EMA President it was sad to see the lack of communication between WMA, EMA and National Federation concerning the bidding for the next championships. Two European candidates for 2018 — Venice (ITA) and Malaga (ESP) two ambitious organizers and one loser. The EMA Council was not informed about the competition between two bidders. That should never happen again!”

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Taking a page from kiddie track, the Sierra Gold Masters Track and Field Festival on May 20 is offering prize money for records — $1,000 for WRs and $500 for ARs (with a maximum of $1,000). At least two entrants have a good shot — W65s Kathy Martin in the mile and Myrle Mensey in one or more of her events — shot, hammer, weight, super weight, discus and javelin. She’s flying out from St. Louis, while Kathy is journeying from Northport, New York. (The listed mile WR is 5:54.59 by Britain’s Angela Copson.) Also traveling far is meet announcer Peter Taylor of Virginia. The event is at Nevada Union High School in Grass Valley, California. Meet maven Clyde Lehman writes: “Additionally, we are giving gold-plated silver dollars, Timex watches and subscriptions to National Masters News to the top 3 [age-graded performers] in every 5-year age group from 30 to 99. Our goal is to offer a world-class meet for masters athletes. This is our second year and we hope to make it even better than the first year.” Meet entrants are trickling in. See the Status of Entries page.

Canada to the rescue! The NCCWMA regional masters championships will be held in Toronto, taking over at the last minute from Juarez, Mexico, which bailed last week. Official word on the rescue came Thursday morning via Doug “Shaggy” Smith, the camera-toting, steeplechase-running president of Ontario Masters Athletics. Doug writes: “The NCCWMA Executive contacted me last week [about April 5, the day I posted about Juarez] I guess when they received word about Juarez, to see if we could add the event to our existing Canadian [Masters] Championships. I had to check with my Ontario Masters Board first, to see if we would be willing to take on the responsibility on such short notice. Once that was cleared, I had to check with the Canadian Masters Board to see if they were willing to have the NCCWMA meet piggy-back with their championships. They were very enthusiastic about the prospect — as we have had successful co-meets three times in the past.” The WMA regional will be held August 11-13, 2017, at York Lions Stadium in Toronto, a venue for 2020 worlds. Details on WMA regionals will be on this site, launched early Thursday morning. Many thanks to Doug (who will be meet director) and his countrymen for doing this! Are y’all going? (It’s a month after USATF masters nationals.)