First reports from Clermont-Ferrand: Send in the clowns
Indoor track meets have been likened to three-ring circuses. So what can you say about a six-day meet with a couple dozen age groups (male and female)? Not enough. Clermont-Ferrand was overwhelming, especially when every athlete has a story. And the results page (I’ve copied the USA one here) can barely do it justice. For example, the American M60 4×200 relay team was DQ’d. Given its makeup of world-class speedsters Sam Hall, Steve Robbins, Mack Stewart and Charles Allie, it’s obvious that a medal was lost. Thankfully, that mystery is now resolved: A collision sparked by a clueless official led to the DQ. It wasn’t the only instance of officiating stupidity.
Is Phil Raschker the favorite for AAU’s Sullivan Award?
Pity Phil Raschker. She’s in the middle of tax season (as an accountant), and busy winning a bunch of gold medals at indoor worlds in France (six at last count), and now she has to deal with yet another distraction. But what a distraction. She’s made the final cut in the Sullivan Award derby, being named to the Top 5 folks contending for the honor of America’s No. 1 amateur athlete. (See her local paper’s report.) Since she made the Top 5 several years ago, one might think she has a good chance of taking the whole enchilada this time around. “It is another fantastic milestone,” Raschker told the paper via e-mail from Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Cliff Wiley: ‘Time is near that USATF needs to break up’
Kansas City lawyer Cliff Wiley, a former world-class sprinter at Kansas, knows USATF inside and out. In 2004, he was head manager of Team USA at the IAAF world junior (under-20) championships in Italy. He coaches high school track and has directed youth track meets for decades in Baltimore and the Midwest. And now he’s ready to chuck his standing in USATF. He’s calling for the breakup of USATF. “This is a debate that needs to occur,” Cliff wrote me last week. “Swimming broke up and no one died. The pieces to the USATF puzzle simply don’t fit anymore.”
At least seven world records tumble in Clermont-Ferrand
In its first three days, the 3rd World Masters Indoor Athletic Championships have seen at least seven world records smashed (three by Team USA). I haven’t inspected all marks, but the ones I’ve noticed on the Clermont-Ferrand results site are pretty dang impressive. Take the sprints, for example. Val Barnwell of the United States broke Bill Collins’ M50 WR for 60 meters. Val ran 7.18 Tuesday — a time that would have won the M45 age group or taken third in M40! The listed WR is 7.20 by Collins in 2002. Notable in the M65 age group was Steven Robbins’ 8.06 — which is pretty much as good as the listed hand-timed WR of 7.8 set back in 1986.
Olympian Jearl Miles-Clark enters Boston indoor nationals
Rebecca Connolly, Terri Rath, Andrea Ostrowski and Charmaine Roberts are in for a treat. They get to race four-time Olympian Jearl Miles-Clark at Boston indoor nationals later this month. Jearl is a late entry in the W40 200 and 400. Jearl ran the 400 earlier this season in 57.09. Charmaine is no slouch, of course. She ran the 4 in 60 a few weeks back. But better competition might push her to a sub-59. Also of course: Jearl isn’t the fastest W40 in the nation. That title belongs to Alisa Harvey, whose 2:05 half shows she has the speed to go faster than 57. Check out this recent Washington Post story on Alisa.
Results being posted on funky Clermont-Ferrand Web site
Everyone reads French, right? No matter. You can figure out what the event is by context and performance. Here is the results entryway for the 3rd World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships in France. The first events have trickled in from yesterday, opening day in Clermont-Ferrand. The site promises: “From Monday 17th of March, all results will be available during the whole week and updated several times every day.” Good to hear. Hope you see your Dad, Grandma or friend at the top of the lists! Here are results from Day 1. (At the bottom of this page, a dropdown menu gives you access to more results pages.) Note how Kathy Martin won the W55 8K cross country race — beating the W50 winner in the process!
Morioka anchors M60 world indoor record in 4×4 relay
Harold Morioka of British Columbia, a masters sprint legend with records and world titles galore, has had a rough few years. But he’s overcome injuries in sensational fashion, teaming with three other gents to lower the M60 world indoor record (although he recently turned 65). They did it a schoolkids meet in Kamloops a couple weekends ago. Their time of 4:13.30 beat a listed American mark of 4:14.76 set by Frank Condon, John Darlington, George (a correction) Cohen and Larry Barnum at Idaho nationals in 2005. Harold writes: “After almost five years of very little running, I started running again last October, with a few of the guys that I coach. At first it was very difficult for me. I could only jog one lap before I had to walk.”
W40 Katalin Deák bounces two indoor WRs in Budapest
Katalin Deák of Hungary turned 40 on March 4. She didn’t wait long to make her marks on the record book — long jumping to world indoor bests of 6.21 (20-4 1.2) in the long jump and 12.77 (41-10 3.4) in the triple jump March 8 in Budapest, Hungary. Both W40 records were set in a 20-minute stretch, reports this Hungarian track site. The listed W40 WRs are 5.87 (19-3 1/4) by Anne Levard of France and 12.14 (39-10) by Petra Herrmann of Germany. So she broke 20- and 40-foot barriers in one outing! Of course, Katalin was a W35 stud as well, winning world titles and setting records in that age group.Thanks to Alan Sigmon for the heads up on this.
NYT story: ‘If stretching was a drug, it would be recalled’
Stretching before training and competition has been part of my routine for four decades. It’s almost a religion. But my faith has been tested by a series of studies and news articles in recent years, including this recent one in The New York Times. Gina Kolata, a W60 runner and one of the best health and fitness writers in the business, wrote the article and focused on an issue I’ve been wondering about: Yeah, stretching may hurt your performance, but don’t you need it to avert injury? Well, the experts she talked seem to lean toward the idea stretching doesn’t prevent injuries either.
Final version of USATF Colorado grievance verdict issued
Less than a week after a USATF panel handed down its rough draft roughing up the Colorado Association leadership, the final verdict has been issued. It doesn’t cut Colo. USATF any slack. And it’s a victory for masters track in the Rocky Mountain state, since it says “a new election is required for the election of all officers of the Association” and “the Association shall immediately commence a process to revamp its financial allocation procedures.” In other words, the Youth Committee won’t have final say on budget allocation, as it apparently did before.
