Reno report: Cleveland wins 2011 masters nationals
The Harrison Dillard Track Complex at Baldwin-Wallace College in the Cleveland suburb of Berea will host the summer 2011 USATF Masters National T&F Outdoor Championships, master delegates decided this morning. Spokane was said to have expressed interest earlier, but Marla Emde of Spokane LOC, told me that reconstruction work at Spokane Falls Community College won’t be done until after 2011, so they’l probably vie for 2012 or 2103. Despite a brief bid from the floor to award the 2012 nationals, masters chair Gary Snyder said, Nah, we’ll wait for next year to award 2012. So Spokane is the front-runner to land another nationals, after a good show in 2008.
Reno report: Drug-testing mandate for masters records?
I kid you not. Under a rule change being considered by USATF, any American record application by a masters athlete would have to include evidence that the record-setter passed a drug test after the event. Item 73 of these proposals at the USATF annual meeting makes no exception for masters track. Yet it’s been a long-standing practice not to conduct dope tests at masters nationals — because the cost would bankrupt our program. All the masters delegates agreed that we can’t possibly obey such a rule. So what to do? Amend the proposal to create a “masters exception”? Add a disclaimer that masters track would waive this rule year-by-year? Or let the rule take effect and just ignore it?
Reno report: Masters elect officers, hear prez hopefuls
Gary Snyder was re-elected this morning as USATF Masters Track & Field Committee national chairman and Janet Smith as vice chair, both unopposed. Two new officers on the executive committee — Secretary Jeff Brower and Treasurer Caroll DeWeese — won their first terms unopposed as well. The lone race was avoided when Madeline Bost of New Jersey informed Nominations Committee chair Phil Byrne that she was opting out of the secretary contest. Jeff and Carroll succeed Lester Mount and Joy McDonald, respectively. Highlight photos of the 3 1/2-hour session today are now posted on my gallery. They include shots of USATF presidential candidates Stephanie Hightower and Bob Bowman, who spoke separately to the 70-member gathering in advance of Friday’s election at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino.
Reno report: USATF restructures, Raschker honored
Amid the pall created by Bob Fine’s death yesterday morning — only hours after the masters pioneer attended meetings of USATF in Reno — the governing body last night voice-voted approval of a major restructuring that rendered masters track even more cloutless than it was before. No guaranteed seat for MTF on the board. There’s still a chance we might score a seat through another method, but I ain’t counting on it.
WAVA co-founder Bob Fine dies at USATF meeting
USATF reports a tragedy beyond measure: the death of Florida’s Bob Fine, a racewalker in recent years who wrote the original constitution of the World Association of Veteran Athletes and was an early officer of USA Masters. He also started an early masters newsletter and competed in just about every world masters championship. Jill Geer of USATF writes from Reno: “Longtime USA Track & Field volunteer and contributor Bob Fine of Delray Beach, Fla., was struck and killed by a car while running at 5:45 a.m. in Reno, police confirmed Wednesday morning. Fine, 77, was in Reno to attend USATF’s 2008 Annual Meeting. Fine’s contributions to USATF and the sport are countless. A member of the Masters Track & Field Hall of Fame, he was an avid race walker who served USATF in numerous capacities.”
Hightower campaign admits listing bogus supporters
Under orders of the USATF Ethics Committee, masters hurdler Dexter McCloud has circulated a press release apologizing for an earlier press release. In the original PR blast, Dr. Evie Dennis, writing “on behalf of The Committee to Elect Stephanie Hightower,” listed about 50 USATF members endorsing Hightower for USATF president. But oops! At least two of the “supporters” had not given their consent to be listed as such. One was masters distance legend Ruth Anderson. For details on this matter, see this letsrun.com thread. Also watch for reaction on the Track & Field News message board. The USATF presidential election is Friday in Reno, Nevada.
Juan Bustamante dies at 65; was popular SoCal sprinter
Juan sprints at UCSB’s Club West Masters in October 2007.
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Juan Bustamante, a mainstay of the Southern California masters circuit and a loyal reader of this blog, has died at age 65. Brenda Matthews, president of the Southern California Striders, his club, passed along the news: “It is with sadness that I announce the passing of Juan Bustamante. Dan Girling informed me that Juan lost his battle with cancer and passed away last Friday. Juan Bustamonte had been a Strider for at least 22 years. . . . . He thoroughly enjoyed competing and was motivated to get himself in better condition. Juan expressed to me his excitement that the SC Striders track club was still active. . . . My condolences to the family.” Juan was a big man — a few years back he told me he weighed 230 pounds — but he could still bring it in the sprints.
Barnwell sweeps 1-2-4 at South American championships
The meet logo recycles that of the 1997 WAVA worlds in Durban, South Africa.
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The city of Rosario, Argentina, hosted the 14th South American masters track championships the last week of November, and results are posted here. Kind of ugly presentation, I know. (After clicking on an event, you have to move the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the page to the left to bring the results into view.) But we see lots of hard-core competition down there. Val Barnwell of Brooklyn was among a handful of U.S. entrants, and he must have had fun. He won the M50 200 by more than two seconds, clocking 23.92. In the 100, Val ran a wind-aided 11.44 to win. And he completed a Collinsesque sweep by taking the 4 in 56.21. Congrats to the Barnburner, whose 2008 season started indoors and included a 60-meter world record at Clermont-Ferrand, France. You can rest now, Val.
Record rejection sours Kay Glynn’s breakthrough season
Masters athletes are idiots. So are meet directors. Don’t they know rules are rules? That must be Sandy Pashkin’s thoughts as she stamps REJECTED on every fifth record application she gets. The latest miscarriage of justice involves a W55 pole vault mark by national champion Kay Glynn last June. As detailed in this blog entry, Kay thought she had broken the world outdoor age-group record at a Northern California USATF meet at Los Gatos High School. “We were ALL so excited!” Kay wrote me yesterday of her 3.08 (10-1 1/4) jump (which beat a Phil Raschker WR of 10-0). “I was at the Pacific Association Masters T&F Championships. In September, I was notified by Sandy that there was a mix-up with the meet directors and the meet had not gotten sanctioned.” So guess what? No sanction, no record.
Masters muckup: USATF rejects Hinton mile world record
Last January, John Hinton of North Carolina shaved nearly two seconds off one of the oldest world records on the books: the M45 indoor mile mark of 4:21.90 by Albin Swenson in 1993. John was auto-timed in 4:20.18 at the tradition-rich Hartshorne Memorial Masters Miles at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. But I have some news for John: Tough luck, champ. Your mark won’t count as a record. Why? The meet wasn’t USATF-sanctioned. How could this be, especially for a meet as storied and well-run as the Hartshorne? Therein lies a mile-long tale.
