The real pole vault summit: Ritte, Bubka and Isinbayeva
Ya know how competing in nationals or worlds makes you feel as if you’re really being treated like a serious athlete? Think how Wolfgang Ritte and Christine Müller must have felt being honored alongside Usain Bolt and the other Olympic legends at the World Athletics Gala a week ago in Monaco. Ritte and Christine Müller are the IAAF Masters Athletes of the Year — and the masters site run by Robert and Annette Koop of Germany reported Wolfie’s reaction to being saluted at the IAAF shindig.
Louise Tricard truly remembered her friends in her will
Louise divided her estate among track friends, kin.
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When track historian and masters athlete Louise Mead Tricard died in late September, she had no immediate family in her adopted home of Florida. No children. Her husband, John, passed away two months earlier. So how would her estate be distributed? Would she leave anything to USATF, or any track clubs or charities? Since her will is a public record of Brevard County, Florida, I wrote for a copy to find out. The document arrived this week, and it reflects Louise’s love for her longtime track friends, including coaches and fellow masters athletes. The “last will and testament of Louise M. Tricard” was signed and witnessed Aug. 13, 2008, apparently in the Bronx hospital of her native New York City, where she was being treated for a recurrence of cancer.
Info posted on USATF masters national multi-event meet
It’s officially called the USA National Masters Combined Events Championships, but it’s basically the nationals for decathlon and heptathlon. Pole vault maven Becca Gillespy of Seattle has posted the rudimentary information about the event August 15-16, 2009, at Woolsey Stadium at King’s High School in Shoreline, Washington. Should be well-run, since they did it back in 2006. (See photos from 2006.) Women also are welcome to do the deca, too. In 2006, several women’s world records were set there.
Canadians mourn masters friend, runner Dave Reed, 54
Dave Reed: master of friendship, running
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He ran a 2-minute 800 at age 40 and was a 4:30 miler on the roads. He competed at Buffalo worlds in 1995 and the Hartshorne Masters Mile in 1997. But Dave Reed, who died last week at age 54 of complications from a staph infection, was known to his fellow Canadians mostly as a consummate runner, friend and “truly a big kid who never entirely grew up.” Masters leader Doug Smith reported the sad news Nov. 21, quoting George Gluppe: “Dave passed away yesterday. His great heart finally quit. He was just too sick. We were hoping for the last two months that somehow he would recover. He was a unique character, he loved running and other runners who shared his passion. He had a fantastic memory for races and workouts, even from 30 years ago. All who knew him will miss him, and the things he brought to our sport.”
Be thankful we’re not masters tracksters in Thailand
Americans today celebrate Thanksgiving, a day for gratitude and gorging on flightless bird cadavers. (I’ll have my share, thank you!) And what should we as masters athletes be thankful for? Well, that we’re not living in countries beset by airport protests, for one. The situation in Thailand is terrible. How bad? This note was sent out today, Asia time: “URGENT …… URGENT ……. URGENT ……. URGENT ……. URGENT …… Announcement: Because of the turmoil at Bangkok international airport, the LOC of the 15th Asia Masters Athletics Championships decided today to postpone the championships to January 13-17, 2009. All terms and conditions of the championships remain the same. We apologize for the trouble caused,” signed by the Local Organizing Committee for the meet originally set to start Monday.
Wooden hurdles! Sawdust pits! Life photos galore!
Google is God when it comes to researching stuff. The latest tool is access to old-time photos from Time and Life magazines, including images of track in the early and mid-20th century. Check out this archive of Time/Life magazine covers and iconic photos of tracksters famous and forgotten. I remember running over heavy-duty hurdles like this one in junior high (late 1960s). This high jumper was nearly flopping — 13 years before Fosbury won gold at Mexico City. Heck, you might even find yourself in one of these shots. Which is your fave?
Olympian tells masters club: Primadonnas drop batons
Inger Miller bemoaned pro track as a “narcissistic sort of society.”
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Olympic and world champion sprinter Inger Miller was a breath of fresh air Saturday night. Speaking at the annual awards banquet of the Southern California Striders (check out my photos here), she told riveting stories about her dramatic track career, its emotional ups and downs and incredible debut: as a sophomore at Pasadena’s Muir High School. Despite being the daughter of Jamaican sprint hero Lennox Miller, she didn’t enter track meets until she came under the tutelage of coach Jim Brownfield at Muir. And Jim was at the Striders to introduce Inger (and share his own amazing stories). But what really got Inger going was a simple question: Why have recent U.S. women’s relay teams dropped the baton at the Olympics?
M45 slowster closing in on 1,000 medals, he claims
You’ve heard of speedsters? Meet Ganga Prasad, an Australian slowster. I rarely use such language in describing a fellow sprinter (since I’m not much faster than this gent.) But this guy ticks me off. In a local Aussie newspaper, he boasts about winning eight medals at this month’s Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast. “Prasad won two golds, five silvers, and a bronze medal in the 45-49 age group,” this article reports. “He was aiming to reach a career tally of 1,000 medals, but after the Gold Coast was happy to give his body a rest.” Ganga said: “For three days after, all the muscles couldn’t move. If I did any more, I would have died. I think I did very good this time, and the games themselves with all the events were too good.”
Ganga displays a gaggle of medals from recent meet.
Would you give up sex to stay legal in masters track?
Last June, news services reported that the World Anti-Doping Agency was thinking about classifying Viagra as a PED (performance-enhancing drug). No joke, despite the inherent humor. Now comes news that athletes at Marywood University in Pennsylvania are being given Viagra to see “whether the diamond-shaped blue pills create an unfair competitive advantage in dilating an athlete’s blood vessels and unduly increasing oxygen-carrying capacity.” If so, WADA will consider banning the drug, says The New York Times. Oh, geeze. Talk about dysfunction. This could make masters track go flaccid for 50 years. Talk about the horns of a dilemma.
In 2004, Hightower rival wrote about her ‘three faces’
Stephanie Hightower, the apparent front-runner for USATF president, likes to highlight her tenure on the Columbus (Ohio) school board. She led the board for five years. But a one-time rival of hers, who later ran for governor of Ohio, has a different take. And in January 2006, her local paper did this profile as she left the board. But the comments of the ex-rival, Bob Fitrakis, are the most disturbing. He wrote: “Hightower is on the record with at least three versions of the day a 14-year-old boy threw a rock at her car. . . . Two eyewitnesses to the event who work at the YMCA, where Hightower confronted the youth, claim she called the kid ‘a motherfucker.’ ”
