Happy half-century to German webster Annette Koop!
Today is Annette Koop’s 50th birthday. She and her lawyer husband Robert have been the driving force behind her German masters track “seite” for many years. I’d be lost without them. They are a source of much of Europe’s best reporting on masters track. Here’s my Google-ized greeting: “Happy Birthday, Annette! Mögen Sie haben ein halbes Jahrhundert mehr, gefüllt mit sagenhaften Reichtum, Gesundheit und viele wunderbare sportliche Erfolge.” I met the Koops (and George, one of her five children) at the 1999 WAVA world masters meet in northeast England. Annette won gold in the W40 800. Here’s a shot of her leading a race.
Oh, Momma! Mainer is competing for two at worlds
I’ve seen a lot of recent moms competing in masters track. But here’s a first. W40 multi-eventer Susan Wiemer yesterday hopped a plane for France with more on board than spikes and implements, reports Steve Solloway of the Portand Press Herald in Maine. Steve writes: “As she trained for next week’s World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships in France, Susan Wiemer wondered if her rigorous training had affected her asthma. Or if she caught the flu. Her imagination, when she let it loose for a few seconds, had more dire conclusions. . . . She bought a pregnancy test. She was looking at the results when her husband, Scott, walked in the door of their Freeport home.” The news: They’re having a baby this summer.
Jamaican masters body urges retired athletes to re-up
Here’s a thought. This story shows how USATF can increase the ranks of masters athletes: Just ask. In the Jamaica Observer, Paul Burrowes writes: “Buoyed by the presence of world masters champions Val Barnwell of the United States and Jamaican Chris Grant, the Jamaican Masters Athletic Association (JMAA) has been given a fresh lease on life. The association, headed by Dr. Maynard McIntosh, is calling for retiring and retired athletes to make the transition to masters competitions even while the JMAA seeks to resurrect business house track and field.”
Photogs have you covered at Clermont-Ferrand worlds
One is pointing toward the M50 sprints at worlds. The other is focusing on her 40th birthday in 2009. So what do Britons Tom Phillips and Lesley Richardson have in common (besides nationality)? They’re both toting cameras to Clermont-Ferrand, France, and the 3rd World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships. The six-day meet starts Monday. Lesley writes: “I am not competing in France, but I have started training with a view to making my comeback in Ancona (in) March 2009, which is the European Indoor Masters Championships in Italy. The . . . 60m, which I want to contest, is on the 26th March, the first day of competition — and my 40th birthday.”
Nolan Shaheed, Phil Raschker are Athletes of Year
The USATF Masters T&F Awards Committee today named Nolan Shaheed, 58, and Phil Raschker, 61, its 2007 Masters Track & Field Athletes of the Year. Under a new awards process that recognizes athletes for the previous calendar year, the 23-member committee led by Dave Clingan of Oregon voted this month on several dozen nominees. There’s a little overlap with the 2007 awards system (which also picked Nolan as top master), but that ends now. This award differs from the end-of-the-year USATF convention award, which last December named a top masters athlete (male or female). Also congrats to meet announcer Peter Taylor. He won the David Pain Distinguished Service Award. Dave’s press release follows:
Masters meet smack dab in the middle of the Trials?
Yesterday on a Track & Field News message board, Olympic Trials meet director Tom Jordan posted this revelation: “There will be all-comers meets on the two ‘rest’ days, July 1 & 2. July 1 will be for kids; July 2nd for teens and up. Very limited slate of running events; no field events. It’s mostly to give interested athletes the chance to run on Hayward Field during the Olympic Trials.” If this pans out, it sounds like a dream-come-true. Running on the same track as the team bound for Beijing!
Colorado USATF brass get major slapdown in verdict
Four months ago, we summarized a 17-page grievance filed against the youth-centric leadership of the USATF Colorado Association. Today the verdict was made public. As far as I can tell from this decision of the hearing panel (which included masters track enchilada Rex Harvey), the complaining party won on all counts. Money will change hands and financial decisionmaking will be rejiggered. I was sent the decision with this note by hearing officer Scott Erwin, who wrote: “Please note that this is subject to edit, still, so there could be minor additions or changes. Please advise if you have questions. I will figure out how or whether to address questions if any arise.”
Magill lowers 5K record, Young seizes 3000 best
Pete Magill picks his races carefully. So does fellow M45 distance star Tony Young. Over the weekend, racing 1,000 miles apart, they produced the same result: age-group records. A week after lowering his own outdoor 3000 AR, Pete, 46, ran 5,000 meters against the kiddies at the Ben Brown Invitational at Mt. San Antonio College and beat his own M45 American record with an amazing 14:34.27. (In July 2006, Pete ran 14:45.96 in Sacramento.) Results are here. That’s less than 11 seconds off the fabled world record of 14:23.6 by France’s Lucien Rault way back in 1982. Tony, who turns 46 in mid-April, merely ran 3,000 indoors in 8:32.32 — 4.5 seconds faster than Pete’s outdoor AR of 8:36.86 and under the listed world indoor record of 8:34.58 by Spain’s Jesus Borrego in 2007. Check out the results.
Horace Grant on Nolan Shaheed’s heels in SISU 800
Nolan Shaheed of Pasadena finally has some M55 competition. Yesterday at the SISU Foundation 800 Meter Challenge Race at Mesa Community College, part of the Grand Canyon State Games, Nolan, 58, had to work to hold off Horace Grant of Houston. In doing so, 2:07.48 to 2:07.77, Nolan collected the first prize of $500 for beating the All-American Standard by the biggest margin (17 seconds in this case.) Event organizer Doug Thompson, who reported these results, writes of the race: “It was a rousing success on several dimensions.”
Allen Johnson takes silver at IAAF worlds at age 37!
Allen Johnson’s bid to win Olympic medals 12 years apart is on track. AJ, the 1996 Atlanta champion, took second to Athens champ and world record holder Xiang Liu of China today in the 60-meter hurdles at the IAAF worlds in Valencia, Spain. Allen beat Liu out of the blocks but couldn’t hold him off. Just reaching the final is incredible; the guy turned 37 last Saturday. Of course, the downside is that every 30-something track star out there will turn up their noses at the masters circuit. If Allen is still going strong over 42-inch hurdles, why lower yourself to running 39s? (Meanwhile, 37-year-old Dragutin Topic failed to medal in the high jump, but 31-year-old Stefan Holm of Sweden took gold. Great play-by-play here.)
