In September 1983, Puerto Rico hosted the fifth WAVA world meet. Official WMA histories mention the brutal heat, and how some athletes were hospitalized. But it wasn’t until I read news accounts of PR worlds in the San Juan Star that I learned of more chilling dangers — a rape attempt and several muggings. This month I added a huge PDF of clippings about the 1983 meet to mastershistory.org. The clips also note complaints about “late starting times, the lack of a proper numbering system and faulty means of keeping times and lap counts.” Also long waits for buses between tracks. Some things never change. The Puerto Rico trove is from the Al Sheahen Collection. (I also uploaded clips about the better-run 1987 Melbourne meet.) But we don’t have news reports of other world meets. If you happen to have such materials, lemme know. We could use ’em! Also needed are masters club records. Or meet records for masters events you organize. We have a good set of such records, but could use more links.

W75 superstar Christa Bortignon (lady on the right) belongs to the 90-member Greyhounds Masters Track Club in Vancouver, British Columbia, coached by masters legend Harold Morioka (petting dog) On Saturday, she reports, two real greyhounds joined them for practice at Simon Fraser University. She sent a group picture including the canines, Happy and Huggy. “In dog years, they fit our track and field club’s age requirements, but couldn’t stick around. They had to run!” the club said in a clever caption. So have any other clubs had a chance to train with their mascots?

USATF has rules and policies called “masters exceptions.” The Germans should learn from us. Alfred Hermes notes a recent decision by the German Athletics Federation (DLV is their acronym) to limit German national championships to German citizens. The policy (detailed here) has the unintended effect of squeezing German masters nationals. The DLV says the policy starting in 2017 “harmonizes” with those of “most other countries.” Maybe at the elite level, but masters generally are run as all-comers meets. Reason for the change? Some clubs at the open level apparently used foreigners living or working in Germany to pad their club budgets and scoring potential. “The new regulations are intended to prevent the practice of ‘German lobbies’ in a neighboring country to ‘borrow’ integrated athletes for a DM start, so as to improve their success account and focus again on the determination of the best German athlete,” said the DLV announcement. Too bad one-size-fits-all applies to German masters.

If you’re not in the Kentucky USATF association, you probably don’t know George Leaf. But if you run shuttle hurdles at nationals, you need to thank him. George is the Stradivarius of the measuring tape used for marking the crazy back-and-forth hurdles event. Jeff Davison told me about his work some months back, and Games Committee member Bill Murray connected me to George. Bill told me: “We currently charge $500 for a pair of shuttle hurdle tapes. That’s 92 hurdle marks and 92 directional arrows per tape. The tapes are an extremely high quality, German-manufactured fiberglass tape and they run about $100 plus shipping each. That’s only $150 per tape for his time.” I touched base with George, and he graciously replied. Among other things, we learn that our new national masters chair had a hand in this project.

Read the rest of this post »

Al Sheahen left an incredible legacy in masters track. But he was more than the fire-breathing editor and publisher of National Masters News and longtime WAVA officer. He once held the M40 American record in the 400 hurdles at 61.9 in 1973, and he produced an amazing newsletter chock-full of age-group resources for his hometown San Fernando Valley Track Club. The last tidbits emerge from perusal of the SFVTC newsletter, which I’ve added to mastershistory.org — our online museum. The first of nearly two dozen issues available is dated May 1975. Check out pages 7 and 8 — a compilation of world age-group records in the three “classes” of the day — M40, M50 and M60. (No women’s records were kept apparently, or for older men’s age groups.) Virgil Mcintyre of Prescott, Ariz., held the M60 WR for 100 meters at 12.8. (It’s now 11.70, and the current M70 WR is 12.77.) If it weren’t for the SFVTC newsletter, whose issues here end with June 1977, we might not have gotten NMN, which launched in summer 1977.

Elite tracksters retire all the time. Masters trackos never say never. But in a rare report, Dr. Peter Hawes of Australia, an M60 middle-distancer, told his local paper: “It’s hard because you want to keep running, but as a doctor, I can feel when my body has had enough and I think that time is here. People said after I won my first race at the world championships to make sure I defend it, because it’s in Australia, and I did that. It was a special feeling winning it in front of a home crowd but the first one in Sacramento is just a memorable moment that I won’t forget.” Peter won the M55 800 at Sacto worlds in 2:07.87 and the M60 crown at Perth in 2:18.46. I have friends who simply step aside and don’t make an announcement. But given our cohort habit of comebacks, I just wait. (Irene Obera and Phil Raschker have “retired” and returned.) If Peter can’t train or compete at his preferred level, it’s understandable. And he’s achieved the “going out at the top” goal many aspire to. How do y’all decide when it’s time?

Read the rest of this post »

Two weeks after a crackerjack New York Times investigation found Dharampal Singh Gujjar to be “78 or so,” the Indian sprinter was still insisting he was 119 years old. But at least a news account acknowledges “a dispute over his age.” Whatever. In the era of fake news and liars, he’s a piker. I think I’ll start a fan club celebrating his chutzpah. His new goal isn’t breaking masters records for M115, but keeping youngsters from joining gangs. “Some of the young boys became drug addicts,” he says. “I have forced them to join my coaching camp and bring them back to normal life through running. And this will be my mission.” Well, good on you, DSG! Just don’t show them how to fake their age.

Read the rest of this post »

Thomas Kok is a world-class M70 racewalker who was a top 10 finisher at Perth (but was fourth at 2011 Sacramento worlds in M65.) A week ago, he shot a letter to his local paper. He said in part: “Often, at Masters Championships, a considerable number of my fellow masters athletes would pour out their grouses and grievances, especially the lack of moral and financial support from the Sports Ministry. They are naturally envious of the recent Olympians and para-Olympian winners who, of course, deservedly received cash and other material rewards. But, sadly, there’s no recognition for Malaysian Masters Athletics winners who have to train on their own for any competition.” Nice to see the fight being waged on the other side of the world.

Read the rest of this post »

Our new national masters chairman won’t be a mere caretaker. Rex Harvey is moving to shake things up, bring in new blood. That’s what I glean from his recent “get involved” posting on usatfmasters.org. Rex also responded to my queries. In his note, Rex wrote: “As the newly elected Masters Track and Field (MTF) Committee Chair, it falls to me to appoint the chairs of all of our subcommittees, task forces, and those regional coordinators that are not elected by their own region. (All of these to serve during my four-year term.)” He linked to a listing of 30 positions and application forms. “To grow our sport through greater participation (one of my SMART goals), we need the talents and active involvement of all of our members moving forward, so I strongly urge each of you to think about what contributions you can make to our sport as a chair of one of our working groups.” So if you have ideas but feared you didn’t have a “name,” now’s your chance to jump in the game.

Read the rest of this post »

At 2014 Winston-Salem nationals, Charlie Boyle was considered the “baby” of the world’s first M90 relays — helping set debut WRs at 4×400 and 4×800. According to a great Annapolis Capital Gazette profile, he later said: “Our only requirement was to cross the finish line alive.” Last week, fellow members of the Potomac Valley Track Club learned of Charlie’s death a week short of turning 93. Said the story: “Boyle, who had a form of Myelodysplasia, a bone marrow disorder, suffered a massive stroke shortly after his regular Pilates class a month earlier. He never recovered. After several weeks in a hospital and an assisted living facility, his wish to return home was honored. ‘It was his choice to let go,’ said Holly Perdue Boyle, his daughter-in-law. ‘He never wanted to be dependent or a burden to his family.'” His last major meet was 2015 Winston-Salem indoor nationals, where his 200 silver and 3K walk gold helped PVTC win the team title.

Read the rest of this post »