With the help of around 10 donors, who chipped in $25 to $50 to raise the requested $500, Peter Taylor was brought to Boston again to announce the USATF Masters Indoor National Championships, reports Steve Nearman, who organized the fund drive at the behest of Boston meet organizers. And Peter delivered. He also delivers the latest in his first-person reports on the meet.

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The recurring bane of masters track reared its ugly head at worlds, it appears. Laps were miscounted in distance races in France, according to a Forum post by a friend in Hong Kong who goes by the handle Quick Silver (he knows me as Quick Sand). Quick writes: “Does anyone have any comments on lap counting at Clermont Ferrand? The system seemed to change in mid-meet. . . . On the track they gave everyone in my 3000 walk a second chip to be worn around the ankle, and the lap counting went fine. Two days later, in my wife’s 3000 run, they dispensed with the ankle chips and some people ran an extra lap. This was brought to their attention, but the results came out with the extra lap included.” Anyone else experience a lap-counting problem?

Orville Rogers is a rocket. At 90 years old, he torched a pair of age-group world records at Boston masters nationals, which concluded today. USATF’s Jill Geer did another nice roundup story for her Day 3 report. (Results are here.) Just goes to show why we love this sport. It’s unpredictable. USATF touted Jearl-Miles Clark and vaulter Paul Babits in its preview press releases. Jearl didn’t show, and Paul didn’t jump. But Orville (and many others) step up, and you have quite a meet.

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Amid all the attention back East, we Left Coast masters also have our eyes on the prize — the Mt. San Antonio College Relays and the masters exhibition races Sunday, April 20. World champion M60 sprinter Stan Whitley is organizing the sprints at Mt. SAC, and he writes me: “In addition to the M50 100, the W50 100 and M40 200, we will also have M40 and W40 100-meter dashes as well as the men’s and women’s 800 races. . . . . Most of the M40 (races) are close to being filled. I have a few vacant lanes for the W40 100 and M50 100.” Should you be interested (and fast), you can write to Stan at worldclaz@msn.com. For entry info and standards for the men’s and women’s 800s, check out the USATF site here. The entry deadline is 6 p.m. Pacific time April 1 — this coming Tuesday. No fooling.

Got back from France last night. I did not bring my laptop with me so was incommunicato with email. I’m sure you saw the results, but they are misleading. I witnessed one of the best jumps I’ve ever seen anyone take and miss. Bruce McBarnette (after a little nudging from me) decided to try to break Z-Man’s supposedly untouchable record of 2.00 and forego yet another ho-hum American Record. He had been smoking every height. His first two attempts were what I would call “undisciplined” and were not close. I told anyone standing near me not to leave yet. Bruce has an uncanny habit of pulling rabbits out of hats on third attempts. Then it came. Fast approach, powerful lead leg and over he went. Only the bottom of his right calf nudged it off. Other than that it was a clean jump. Everybody was thunderstruck he got that close – including me. After consulting some of the other jumpers we concluded he would have probably cleared 1.99 or 2.00. Bruce now knows he can do it and barring injury he will. The outdoor record is “only” 1.98. I also believe we had the deepest M50 championships in history. My 1.81 clearance on second attempt would have garnered silver in M45. Jim

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They outta call it MastersTube, for all the masters track videos you can find on YouTube. The latest is this clip of Charles Allie becoming the oldest man to run the indoor 200 under 25 seconds. Yesterday in Boston, Charles won the M60 60 in 7.91 seconds, less than 0.2 off the American record. So look for another quick time in today’s 200 final at nationals. Almost exactly 10 years ago, Charles won the M50 200 at nationals in 24.06. Losing less than a second after 10 years? Incredible. Thanks to Rick Riddle for the YouTube link!

Well, Phil Raschker, 61, didn’t have to vault to make her mark in Boston. Running the 400 in 68.34, she set yet another world record. It was nearly a solo effort, since second place was 1:36.57. And the USATF news wrapup of Day 2 at masters nationals properly previewed her trip to New York for the AAU Sullivan Award announcement. She’s a finalist for the second time. How good is a 68.34 at Phil’s age (besides beating the previous WR by nearly 2 seconds)? On the Age-Graded Tables, it corresponds to an open (age-20-30) time of 50.55. The open world indoor record is 49.59 by Jarmila Kratochvílová in 1982. Way to go, Phil.

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Cheryl Treworgy, aka Shalane Flanagan’s mom, is shooting at Boston, and 10 great photos have been posted on the USATF Web site already. Sadly, though, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald seem not to have published a single story about Day 1 (Friday). Maybe their Sunday editions will have more space.

W55 vaulter Kay Glynn and W45 thrower Neni Lewis upped their own world records today as the USATF masters indoor nationals kicked off in Boston. USATF media czar Jill Geer has already posted a Day 1 wrapup. Complete results for Day 1 also are posted. One worrisome result: Phil Raschker was a DNS (did not start) in the pole vault. But you can see her form in this video produced by the National Senior Games Association for her Sullivan Award bid:

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Jearl Miles-Clark, who competed in four Olympics in the 400, 800 or relays, has dropped out of this weekend’s Boston masters indoor nationals, according to a brief note from Jill Geer, USATF chief media maven, who lives in Boston and is covering the event. No reason was given for the scratch. Geer later wrote: “Notified yesterday by (meet director) Steve Vaitones. No reason given that I know of … just her husband emailing Steve to say she’s not coming.”Jearl was among the meet’s chief press attractions. Three days ago, she led this USATF news release.