Bowman, Jensen and Hightower

Bob Bowman, Dee Jensen and Stephanie Hightower — the known candidates for president of USA Track & Field — have responded to a 10-question email interview I sent a couple weeks ago. They all have deep USATF backgrounds and serious track credits. Their answers were revealing, especially when it came to masters track. In Bob’s Q&A, he says he’ll commit to doubling the Masters T&F Committee budget “if we have the money and masters T&F presents a good case for the use of the money.” In Dee’s Q&A, she suggests that USATF might help pay entry fees, supply uniforms and ship implements for U.S. masters entered in world masters championships. In Stephanie’s Q&A, she pledges “to continue to support the aims of masters track.”

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John Seto is a superweight specialist. Photo by Cheryl Treworgy

John Seto of Pleasant Valley, New York, is the unsung hero of masters track. He’s The Man when it comes to masters rankings, having created the software that allows anyone to view season performance lists with a click of a mouse. He oversees mastersrankings.com — perhaps the best site of its kind in the world. Recent improvements caught my eye, so I sent John some queries on the state of the site. He graciously replied, and the Q&A follows. Most interesting is John’s revelation that of 60,000 entries in his database, fewer than 20 had to be zapped as bogus — an incredible three-hundredths of a percent! That’s a testament to John’s safeguards and the honesty of site users.

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Hey, sprinters! Tired of showing up for morning heats with only six or seven others, but the meet director says: “See you in six hours for the scheduled final”? That idiotic practice would end under a masters rule change proposed by Patrick Pretty at the December USATF convention in Reno. Hey, hurdlers! Tired of running a 400-meter hurdles heat to eliminate one guy? Steve Vaitones has a proposal for that nonsense, too: Make timed finals the rule. Those are but two of a couple dozen proposals on the table at Reno affecting masters track or LDR. Some great ideas. Check out the whole slate of USATF rules-change ideas by clicking here.

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USATF Masters T&F chair Gary Snyder made it official (or at least public) about 20 minutes ago: “The USATF Masters Track and Field Executive Committee is pleased to announce that the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has been selected to host the 2009 USA Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships on July 9-12, 2009. Aerial photographs of the facility can be viewed here. Additional details will follow as they become available.” Well, well. This is out of the blue. This is probably Wisconsin’s first masters nationals. Here is city info. Meet director will be Al Ackerman, the UW-Oshkosh athletic director, who writes that details on lodging and travel may be available by the end of next week. He’ll have help from Jason Fast.

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The track meet portion of the Pan Pacific Masters Games starts tomorrow for a three-day run at Griffith University on Australia’s Gold Coast. Local papers are featuring the likes of 82-year-old multi-eventer Maurice Dauphinet and M30 distance runner (and cancer survivor) Roscoe McDonnell. Overall, 10,000 athletes 30-plus are entered in the festival. Entry is pretty cheap for tracksters: $30 for the first event (including the Results Book) and $5 for each additional event. They apparently are having an age-graded handicap 100-meter dash, “Master of Masters,” featuring winners of the age-group finals. Best of luck to everyone Down Under, and Happy Halloween to those Up Over.

USATF Masters T&F Chair Gary Snyder wrote me this morning that “the committee has selected a site (for 2009 masters outdoor nationals), which I email about after a few loose ends are tied. Folks will not be disappointed. I can confirm the dates, which are July 9-12. I expect to release information early this weekend.” Your guess is as good as mine about the site, but I’ll go out on a limb and predict it’s either Eugene or someplace in the Midwest. A couple dozen people who took part in the conference call Wednesday night are in on the venue, so the site might be leaked sooner. But Gary has sworn them all to secrecy, and there must be a reason for it. Whatever. When I learn it, I’ll share it. But several people on the committee are upset that the decision wasn’t delayed until December’s Reno convention.

Bishop Dolegiewicz: One of world’s strongest men

Al Oerter has another friend in Heaven. Zbigniew “Bishop” Dolegiewicz, a two-time Canadian Olympian (1976 discus and 1984 shot) died Tuesday night at the age of 55, according to an email sent to many in the throws community, including masters thrower Tom Fahey. “Sorry for being the bearer of sad news,” the writer said. “I just got off the phone with Rich Marks where he was informed by Jim McGoldrick that Big Bishop Dolegiewicz passed away last night in his sleep. Bish was 55 years old and has been in poor health the past few years. May we all stay in good clomid health.” Our condolences to his family and friends, especially his young thrower wife Anna.

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Acting president Monty Hacker of World Masters Athletics yesterday reported that nobody has bid to host the 2012 World Masters Indoor Championships — and that all cities publicly declared interested in holding the 2013 outdoor worlds are pretty much chopped liver. Welcome to reality, WMA. Your $150,000 rights fee may be pricing some good locales out of the competition. Monty writes: “Affiliates are hereby notified that despite (WMA) Council having extended the deadline for the above bids to 30th November 2008, no firm bid packages have as yet been received. However, firm intentions to bid have been received as follows: 1. From the City of Porto Alegre (BRA), for 2013 – Stadia; 2. From the City of Turin (ITA), for 2013 – Stadia, and; 3. From Kuala Lumpur (MAL), for 2013 – Stadia.”

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Jack Karbens, an accounting professor in Honolulu and longtime Hawaii Masters TC leader, is giving the USATF Masters T&F Executive Committee the business. Specifically: Get on with it — the choice of where to hold the vacant 2009 masters outdoor nationals. In a letter to masters leaders, he writes: “Please select a site for the (2009) championship by conference call at the end of October. Our designated leader has stated that sites which are planning to bid need to finalize arrangements with their site as soon as possible. We need to support our leader, Gary Snyder. He has had enough challenges due to withdrawal of plans to hold this meet in Florida.”

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Liz Johnson, the 52-year-old multi-eventer from Charlotte, North Carolina, has yet to record a time in the seven-day Sahara Race 2008. According to these results, she’s listed as “U,” for unranked. She hasn’t dropped out, the site says, or she’d be listed as “W,” for withdrew. But after two stages, Liz has no time listed. Just a haunting “00:00:00” by her name. “Unranked means that a competitor has not completed all sections of the course but is still continuing,” the site says. We hope she’s OK and not straying too far from her comfort zone. It’s a long haul. Stage 3 is 37 kilometers (nearly 23 miles). Her blog remains static.