Alyssa Tower topples goal: W45 American record in 10K
Alyssa Tower finishes April’s Race for the Roses in Portland, Oregon.
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Alyssa Tower of Vancouver, Washington, and Club Northwest turned 45 in late September and in October set herself a tall order: Break the 17-year-old American age-group record in the track 10,000 of 38:10.89 by Joan Colman. In fact, she pulled a Babe Ruth, calling her shot several days before the race. Alyssa wrote a friend: “I guess everyone will finally find out, so here it goes. I am going to get that current USATF masters 45-49 age group record. It is currently only 38:10. I am planning to run a 37:45. Wish me luck!” The night of May 10, Alyssa stepped on the track at Western Oregon University for the women’s 10,000 at the John Knight Twilight meet — her first track 10K since 1992. She then proceeded to average 6:05 miles in clocking 37:57.46 for the 6.2-mile race. (Here are official results.)
McCrossen’s reality: Las Vegas meet ended his season
“T.R.A.C.K. Live!” may not live this one down. Its opening meet in Las Vegas — an attempt to showcase masters track in a reality game show setting — did no favors for M40 sprinter Tim McCrossen of Cincinnati. He’s feeling a little embarrassed by the fact he’s done for the year because he let meet directors goad him into running without a warmup. Tim wrote me: “I went to run the meet because of the hot weather (Midwest has been horrible for meets with weather) and have relatives that live there, so it wasn’t a big expense.” But it cost him dearly. Read on.
Andy Hecker’s calendar really tells where the meets are
The No. 1 question in masters track is: Where can I compete? The answer to that simple query tells a lot about the state of our sport. If you ask Andy Hecker of Southern California, he’ll tell you that USATF is doing a terrible job satisfying that simple inquiry. Andy writes: “For my four decades in this sport, we in this sport have had a terrible habit of holding our events in secrecy. I started posting this (all-comers) list 13 years ago to try to improve that situation — and have failed. The tide is simply too strong.” But he’s not giving up. His site continues to point masters nationwide to hundreds of meets a year.
Hinton hovers closer to his M45 world record at 1500
John Hinton’s hunt for a PR in the M45 1500 continued apace over the weekend, reports Alan Sigmon, a track statistician of note. And with an age-group PR comes a nice bonus: a world record. Alan writes: “At the Nike UNC Elite Meet (Chapel Hill, N.C., May 17), John Hinton, 46, ran 3:57.77, his fourth sub-4:00 1500 of the year. (See results here.) This is the 2nd-fastest M45 1500m ever, behind Hinton’s own 3:56.39 WR of last year.” Alan also compiled an all-time list for the M45 metric mile.
Athletes worry: Masters track reality show in jeopardy?
University of Nevada-Las Vegas played host over the weekend to a two-day masters meet — a preliminary event in the much-anticipated reality game show called “T.R.A.C.K. Live!” Although expertly run with USATF officials, auto-timing and all the trimmings, the event fell short of expectations, according to two athletes who took part. The bottom line: No-shows were many, and the dismal turnout could doom plans for a TV show with cash prizes going to the athletes’ high school alma maters.
Track meet promised at 2008 San Diego Senior Olympics
John Schneider, an M60 thrower, had a couple simple questions for the folks running the San Diego Senior Olympics: “Will the games be held this year? If so, will Track & Field be included?” Yesterday, he got a reply from Andy Perez, coordinator of the San Diego Senior Sports Festival: “Yes Sir, we are having Track and Field this year. It will be on Saturday, September 13, 2008. The events are not quite set yet and we hope to have more information in a few weeks. We have been hoping to get our web
site updated by the end of this month.” A Web update would be good, since the current calendar lists the track meet as scheduled for September 22. But at least we have confirmation a meet is being held. Last year’s meet was canceled.
Bachman back in the saddle after post-Italy heart attack
In February, I shared the story of how M85 Canadian thrower Garry Bachman suffered a heart attack 10 days after competing at Riccione worlds, where he won five gold medals. He recovered from the cardiac, but didn’t return to competition immediately. Today we learn (from Doug Smith in Ontario): “Garry Bachman writes: Did my first weight pentathlon since my heart attack. May 17th. Scored just 193 points less than my score in Italy last Sept. No one has the slightest idea how concerned I was to be able to do a weight pentathlon this year, I worried !!! Nor can you imagine how relieved and pleased that I was able to do so and do well !!!! A weight has been lifted !!! All else is bonus !!!! This will be the last pentathlon this year, unless someone beats that mark, 4496 !!! Next meet will be the triathlon with half day meets of single events thereafter. Gotta take it a bit easier.” Way to go, Garry! Stay sane now.
Everad Samuels takes down Bill Collins’ M50 AR at 200
In an Olympic year, it’s common for unknowns to emerge from the woodwork. But M50 sprint phenoms? That’s apparently the case with Everad Samuels, who appears in mastersrankings.com with a 22.66 in the 200-meter dash. Whoa there! That beats the listed M50 American record of 22.79 by Bill Collins in April 2002! But it’s true, according to results at this Icahn Stadium open meet May 10 in New York City. Everad ran into a headwind of 0.9 mps, in fact. (And also clocked a 11.61 100 into a 2.0 mps wind.) Who is Everad?
Monster discus throw reported for M45 Jim Seifert
Mastersrankings.com and our Forum report a discus throw of 62.30 meters (204-5) by 45-year-old Jim Seifert. The toss apparently came at the USATF-Long Island Spring Opener in Bellmore, New York. It’s a USATF-sanctioned event. But I haven’t seen official results posted for this April 13 meet. Still, it’s plausible. Jim is a one-time world-class thrower with a best of 66.72 (218-11) only eight years ago, according to the IAAF Top List. The listed M45 world record is 66.12 (216-11) by a guy named Al Oerter. I’m looking for more details on this amazing throw by Jim.
USATF Foundation explicitly vows money for masters
Yet again, we read about the USATF Foundation dropping big dimes on youth clubs across the country — $1,500 here, $2,000 there. Not blinking an eye. But is the USATF Foundation turning a blind eye to masters? Not really. I wrote to some of the principals a year or so ago, and they replied: Well, we haven’t received requests from masters athletes or organizations. Of course, if you check out their grant page, you get the distinct impression masters track doesn’t exist. However, masters are explicitly invited to seek grants when you read the about page.
