Two Canadian travel agencies offer Lahti help

If you’re contemplating a trip to Finland this summer, two Canadian travel agencies are offering their services. They might be cheaper than booking air fare and lodging on your own. They also might have a better ā€œinā€ with the Lahti world championships organizers. One service is from Goway Travel.Ā  Nicky Cox of Goway writes: ā€œAt the moment we have a block of rooms in Lahti and some in Helsinki — but we will have to release all unsold rooms in approximately two weeks time. We will be able to help from most U.S. cities.ā€ Write Nicky at events@goway.com or check out their Lahti info. (Nicky also writes: ā€œWe are the official North American Operator for the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games – so have air and land set up for that (from LAX and SFO — other cities available).ā€ Also offering services is world-class M45 sprinter David Lee Provo of Flight Centre Associates in Vancouver.

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January 6, 2009  One Comment

Deca great Daley Thompson promotes Dutch meet

Los Angeles Olympic deca champ Daley Thompson of Britain is 50 years old, but he hasn’t competed in masters track (that I know of). Still, he’s lending his name to the sport as a promoter of a Dutch Senior Olympics in September 2009. How cool would it be if Daley, the former world record holder from Britain, entered a couple events (or maybe 10)? (I vividly recall seeing him do his backflip on the pole vault pit in 1984.)

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January 5, 2009  No Comments

Weight throw record too good to be true? Yup, it’s a typo

A sharp-eyed friend sent me this note today: ā€œI am looking at the M85 world record for the weight throw set by Erik Erikson in Finland last August. 18.34m (60-2) is truly amazing for an 85-year-old. It is considerably beyond the 80-year-old record of 16.87m (55-4 1/4) Both use the 12 lb. weight. Is this record really legitimate?ā€ Well, no. But it isn’t a bogus record. Just someone who types as poolry as me. Here’s the deal: The WMA outdoor records page lists 18.34. But Ivar Sƶderlind’s European records page lists 15.34. So I guess someone at WMA needs to go fix the mark. Here’s a screen grab, showing how both marks are currently posted (with the WMA one at the top):

January 3, 2009  No Comments

Lahti housing debate continues as WMA veep weighs in

You’ve raised the questions. So what’s the deal? Is Lahti booked up for worlds? Are motels jacking up prices? Is the official tour operator looking to cash in? Here’s the latest word from Rex Harvey, vice president of World Masters Athletics: ā€œMonty (Hacker, WMA acting prez) and Friedel (Schunk), as WMA treasurer, have recently been in Lahti and housing was one of their specific subjects for being there. As I understand it, what they found was that travel agents had reserved about 60% of the hotel space in Lahti and that is why Lahti Travel was telling me earlier that Lahti was booked. It appears that the travel agents are using the rooms as bait for their total packages rather than just selling rooms alone.ā€

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January 2, 2009  No Comments

Nolan ‘Smith’ Shaheed recalls jazzman Freddie Hubbard

Freddie Hubbard (top) and Nolan Shaheed (above) were soul brothers on jazz stage.

One of the greats died in the waning days of 2008. Not a track legend but a music icon — jazz musician Freddie Hubbard. Since Nolan Shaheed, our multi-year Athlete of the Year, is a fellow jazz trumpeter, I asked him if he had known Freddie. Of course he had. Here’s how Nolan began a touching and funny remembrance: ā€œI did know Freddie Hubbard, and I have played with him from time to time. But we both play the same instrument, so the times I’ve played with him have been at jam sessions and a couple of times when he invited me to play with him on his gig. He was without doubt the greatest jazz trumpet player who ever lived and his command of the horn is legendary. He used to come out and hear me play at a Los Angeles jazz club called The Baked Potato and just sit in the back and dig the scene. Freddie was fiercely competitive and was always challenging cats, but the funniest thing was that we all considered him to be the best anyway so his huge ego was for naught. He embarrassed me one time on stage in Cleveland in 1978 by inviting me to blow a very difficult, up-tempo tune with him.ā€

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January 1, 2009  No Comments

Alisa Harvey’s latest sub-5 mile came 25 years after first

After learning of Alisa Harvey’s latest sub-5 mile (her 4:56 for 1600 meters indoors Sunday in Maryland), I wondered: When did she run her first sub-5? And can any woman claim a longer span? Question No. 1 is now answered. Alisa writes: ā€œI believe my first sub-five mile was in February of 1983. I think I ran 4:54 at George Mason University’s indoor track.ā€ Unsure if Ruth Wysocki or Yekaterina Podkopyeva can beat Alisa for having run sub-5s nearly 26 years apart. I also asked Alisa about her weekend race. Turns out her field was even more crowded than Kevin Forde’s! But she was prepared, she says: ā€œThings got physical. I had to give an elbow or two.ā€ Ha! Don’t mess with our Alisa, kiddies.

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December 31, 2008  2 Comments

WMA still battling stories of Lahti worlds price-gouging

Posted on the WMA website is this eye-opening note: ā€œDespite its better judgment and conviction, WMA has decided to augment its recent announcement on accommodation availabilities for the 2009 Lahti Stadia championships. WMA cannot and will not defend individual price levels, as those are not set by WMA and customarily reflect market rates. However, WMA can confirm that the actual prices quoted by Lahti Travel are within the contracted ranges that were disclosed to the GA assembly which (and not Council) awarded the championships to Lahti.ā€

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December 30, 2008  One Comment

Forde, Harvey burn quick miles at indoor nationals site

M45 Kevin Forde and W40 Alisa Harvey on Sunday ran some great miles at the Maryland venue of indoor nationals in March, according to these partial results of the all-comers meet held there. Kevin ran the 1600 in 4:37 and Alisa, at age 43, clocked the same distance in 4:55.8 (basically the same as my all-time PR of 4:56 run at age 20 indoors at Kansas.) Julie Hayden, who at 48 ran a nifty 4 and 8, reports: ā€œAlisa battled it out in a big open men’s field and had to ā€˜take care of herself . . . as always a great icon for masters women’s track.ā€

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December 30, 2008  2 Comments

SoCal indoor-meet-outdoors director seeks your input

For the fourth consecutive year, Andy Hecker of Southern California is putting on a masters/open meet with ā€œindoorā€ events in advance of masters indoor nationals in mid-March in Maryland. The 2009 ā€œSouthern California Indoor Meet . . . Outdoorsā€ will be Sunday, March 8, at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. (Here’s the meet site.) ā€œRain or shine,ā€ Andy says, ā€œand last year’s weather proved we will be there if it rains. We hope by being a couple of weeks later this year we will have better weather.ā€ Andy also is looking for input on what events to include. So below are some polls he’s created. ā€œDo you want to do the same distances you usually do on an outdoor track — like 200, 400, 800? Or should we do odd, indoor-type distances like 150, 300, 600 (or maybe even 600 yards, wouldn’t that be a kick) and 1,000?ā€

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December 29, 2008  5 Comments

Who are we? USATF desperately needs a masters census

Several times a year, someone writes me: How many people compete in masters track? I hem and haw, and cite a few vague numbers — like 50,000 worldwide (Al Sheahen’s estimate from several years ago) or 8,500 in the United States (the latest figure I heard in Reno at the USATF annual meeting). But that’s not good enough. I want to know how many men 50-plus run hurdles. I want to know how many women 40-49 pole vault. I want to know it all! And not to satisfy mere curiosity. It’s to get a fix on who we are and where we need to grow — and what resources we can leverage for funding and sponsors. Of course, USATF Masters Track & Field has commissioned demographic studies up the yingyang. But these detail percentages of retirees and how many plan to buy cars in the coming year. They are bloodless studies. We need to flesh out our real numbers.

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December 28, 2008  One Comment