Superlegend Earl Fee posted a note to Facebook recently that tells you all you need to know about injury rehab — and Earl’s sense of humor. “Recently I … had a calf injury ongoing for 10 weeks in spite of 20 extensive 45 minute physiotherapy sessions involving cross friction massage, ultra sound and laser treatment,” he began. “Here I discuss the mistakes and reasons for my tortoise-like slow progress.” Later he says: “After about 7 weeks, I made a mistake of disco dancing and quickly learned in a few minutes this caused a setback — a beer and an attractive lady can muddle the mind.” Well, I’d drop the beer but not the lady.

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See comment below, rendering this report moot: Jeff Hartwig turns 50 in September, but he looks to be hungry for an M45 record in the pole vault. He retired from serious competition in late 2008. Now the M40 WR man at 5.70 (18-8 1/4) is jumping back in the game, says an IAAF Spikes story. “Renaud Lavillenie challenged me to step it up and jump with all of the other ‘masters’ – no, the other legends athletes – and I unfortunately thought it sounded like a lot of fun, so now I’m in. At the moment, I’m totally in survival mode,” he says. “The adjustments are by far the biggest challenge. You have to figure out where your run will be, which pole to take, how high to grip, where to place the standards. Normally that takes time and because I haven’t jumped in so long, my biggest fear is that by the time I figure those things out I’ll be too tired to actually compete.” Spikes said Hartwig would “face a whole host of pole vaulting legends in a special exhibition event on Friday ahead of Renaud Lavillenie’s All Star Perche on Sunday,” but I haven’t seen results from France. The listed M45 indoor WR is 5.14 (16-10 1/4) by American Paul Babits in 2008.

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Two years ago, Hugh Gallagher said that as a young man, he was hit across the back by an iron girder. “It almost killed me,” he told an Irish paper. “I was taken to St. George’s Hospital in London where I was told that I would never walk again. They said my back was broke and they put me in plaster. I felt mighty low for a long, long time.” He made a comeback, especially in his later years, winning soma no prescription medals at worlds including Lyon. His last major meet was at the Irish Masters Athletic Championships (four golds). On Saturday, the Donegal News reported his death at 92. “A multi-talented veteran athlete, he held numerous titles and in recent years was a keen advocate of the Bealtaine festival and the innovative Age Friendly Strategy which seeks to improve the quality of life for older people in Donegal,” said his obituary. “A true sporting legend and a great family man, he will be sorely missed.” Our condolences as well.

W55 Fiona Matheson set a 1500 world indoor record of 4:56.51 at the Scottish Open Championships on Jan. 28, reports Athletics Weekly. “She finished fifth in a race won by Ireland’s Emma Mitchell in 4:16.20.” (See results here.) The listed WR is 4:58.13 by Spain’s Aurora Perez in 2013 (The listed American record is 4:58.7 by Kathy Martin in 2007.) See great profile of Fiona: “It is all a far cry from the girl who hated running at school. ‘No wonder I didn’t like it,’ she exclaims. ‘You put on plimsolls and it was absolutely freezing wearing these little shorts and T-shirts in the snow.'” Fiona also hold listed W50 indoor 3K record (9:56.39) and the W50 outdoor 10K record (35:05.7). Nice range, lassie.

Dear Stan: Sandy Pashkin has failed in her role as WMA Records Committee chair. You should take a page from USATF’s Gary Snyder’s playbook and remove her for incompetence and aggravation — to media and athletes. The latest example came Thursday morning, when Soar Running reported an M45 indoor mile world record by Anthony Whiteman at a Lee Valley meet in London. Anthony ran a fantastic 4:12.94. But the listed American record is John Trautmann’s 4:12.33 from 2015. The listed WMA record is Brad Barton’s 4:16.83 from 2013. Meanwhile at the same Wednesday meet, W50 Lucy Elliott ran 5:03.60 to shatter the listed WR of 5:07.32 by Clare Elms in 2015. Two weeks ago, I noted errors in M70 pole vault records. This is a recurring shame. Ten years ago, I called for Sandy’s ouster as USATF records czar. Don’t take that long to act. At the least, have Sandy’s group do a thorough review of all national and region records to make sure WMA’s list reflects the best marks. As it stands, WMA’s record books are an embarrassment to the sport. Sincerely yours, Ken Stone.

No shock here. In his first indoor season as an M40, Kim Collins lowered the world record at 60 meters. Just for fun, he did it twice Wednesday — with a heat of 6.58 and final of 6.56 at a German meet to destroy the listed WR of 6.78 by Holland’s Troy Douglas in 2003. Yowza. Kim’s better time is worth 6.24 on the Age-Graded Tables. (The real WR is Mo Greene’s legendary 6.39.) Sunday in Rhode Island, Lisa Mikkelsen of Holliston, Massachusetts, clocked 62.24 in the 400 to break Jackie Board’s W50 listed American indoor record of 62.82. Lisa’s time in Providence was on a flat track at the USATF-NE & East Region Masters Championships. Lisa could go faster still this year — on a banked track, for example. Kim turns 41 in two months, but still has legs.

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Two years after setting an M40 American record in the indoor heptathlon, Jeferson Souza of Miami upped it over the weekend with a score of 5055 — 45 above his listed AR. He can credit competition from Mike Kuoppamaki, a San Diego coach and chiropractor with solid all-time PRs, including 7451 in the decathlon. Mike scored an amazing 5253 points to win M40 at the first masters track nationals of the year — in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Joining Mike in the record books is Erika Pierce of Charlottesville, Virginia, who scored 4663 points to demolish the listed W45 AR of 3726 by Rebecca Connolly. (No world records are kept. WMA doesn’t contest the hep at worlds. Just the pentathlon.) Jeff Watry hosted the meet again at Carthage College. (He competed as well, taking third in M60.) Rebecca was the only woman to finish the two-day event. Four others were entered. Day 1 has 60 meters, long jump, shot put and high jump. Day 2 has 60 hurdles, pole vault and 1000 meters. See men’s results, and see women’s results.

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In the early summer of 1984, 12-year-old Sonja Friend ran a 400 meters in the ARCO Jesse Owens Games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Months later, she recalled watching Joanie Benoit on TV, winning the 1984 Olympic marathon at the same site. On Saturday, Sonja Friend-Uhl broke Joan’s American record for 3000 meters in the W45 age group. In response to questions, Coach Sonja graciously shared details of the sub-10 race at Boston University. First thing I asked about were injuries she suffered last year. (Sonja had to scratch from the masters 1500 exhibition at the Eugene Olympic Trials because of the remnants of a hamstring pull and plantar fasciitis in her right foot.)

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According to results and a tweet, Bob Lida of Kansas has his first M80 world record — in the 200 — and Britain’s Anthony Whiteman has taken down the M45 WR in the 800 by more than a second. Despite a URL with 2016 in it, Bob is denoted as 80 in these results from the Butterworth Indoor meet at Wichita State University. He turned 80 in November. His time of 30.01 crushed the listed WR of 31.23 by fellow American Harry Brown at 2010 Boston nationals. Bob also holds the listed M75 indoor and outdoor WRs at 200. The listed M80 outdoor WR is 29.54 by Japan’s Hisamitsu Hijiya in 2012. At Wichita, Bob also ran the 60 in 9.08 — two-tenths off the listed WR of 8.88 by Mel Larsen. Across the pond, Anthony tweets having run 1.54.85. The listed WR is 1:56.10 by Nicholas Berra of Pennsylvania. Here’s what AW said:

Boston was veddy veddy good to masters over the weekend. On Friday, Sonja Friend-Uhl ran 3000 meters at Boston University in 9:53.04 to shatter the listed W45 American record of 10:02.55 (at 2003 Boston nationals) by Olympic champ Joan (Benoit) Samuelson. (See results here.) On Saturday, a masters mile kicked off the New Balance Grand Prix at the Reggie Lewis Center, and M45 Peter Brady outlegged a strong field in 4:31.02. (He also won the Hartshorne mile.) Kevin Burke, my subject of a week ago, finished in 4:48.4 — 10 seconds better than his recent masters PR. Good for him! The W45 world record for 3000 seems outtasight: 9:11.67 by France’s Nicole Leveque. But Sonja is still a stud.

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