Kay Glynn turned 55 just four days before setting her age-group’s indoor WR in the vault this month. But that’s just the latest chapter in a remarkable story. She’s a dance teacher and grandmother of two who dreams of doing the circus trapeze! To learn more about Kay, I first contacted one of her track pals, M60 vaulter Bob Banhagel, who replied: “(Kay) and I are friends and talk and swap ideas about the vault on a regular basis. I’ve watched her at national events for the past few years.”

Read the rest of this post »

mastershistory.org contains thousands of pages of material in PDF format, dating to the earliest days of the masters track movement.

Until this month, if you wanted to read back issues of David Pain’s legendary USMITT newsletters, you had to journey to San Diego and rummage through cardboard boxes in a rental unit. Until this month, if you wanted to review Veteris magazine, a British-based WAVA publication, you had to search dusty attics in the UK. And until this month, if you wanted to see virtually all major USA national and WMA world meet results, you’d have to do a whole lotta Web searching. No more. We now have mastershistory.org! Thanks to an idea by Andy Hecker, contributions from David Pain and National Masters News publisher Randy Sturgeon and the laborious efforts of Jeff Davison, an online museum of masters track history now belongs to the world.

Read the rest of this post »

Allen Johnson, who turns 37 on March 1, tonight won the 60-meter hurdles at the elite Tyson invite in Arkansas, clocking 7.60 seconds. That’s just off his own M35 American indoor record of 7.54, which he did last weekend in Germany. (The listed M35 American record is 7.56 by Greg Foster in 1994.) Check out this story, which again displays the cliche media amazement that a thirty-something can stay up with the kidlets. AJ said: “Listening to people and watching the people that came before me, I thought when you hit 33, 35 years old, that you feel significantly different than you do at 25. So far with me, that’s not been the case.” You Da Man, Allen. Go all the way to Beijing!

Anthony Treacher, the banned-in-2006 Briton, jumped in the Swedish masters indoor nationals last Saturday and broke the listed UK M65 indoor record in the long jump. His mark of 4.79 (15-8 1/2) pipped Tony Bateman’s 4.77, set in February 2003 in Glasgow, Scotland. Tony was a world champion at the 2003 Puerto Rico WMA meet. Anthony — who also won the 60 and 200 at Swedish nationals — holds the British M65 indoor 400 record of 63.55. He’ll be tested in all his events next month, when he competes in the third world masters indoor championships in Clermont-Ferrand, France. BTW, entry lists are now available via this lookup page. Just specify sex, age group and event and hit “Go” to see who’s entered from what country (and what they submitted as a recent best).

Read the rest of this post »

Former marathoner Zofia Wieciorkowska, a Polish native who lives in Connecticut, tonight broke the W45 world indoor record for 800 meters, according to a report from the New York Armory and the New York Road Runners Club’s “Thursday Night at the Races“ meet. Zofia is said to have clocked 2:16.3, hand-timed. If confirmed, it smashes the listed age-group indoor record of 2:18.16 by Sweden’s Karin Wåhlstedt in March 2007. This would mean that she just turned 45, since she was listed as 44 when she ran the Hartshorne mile a few weeks back in 5:08.95. Zofia was the W40 European masters outdoor champion in 2007 in the 1500. She’s a former Polish national teamer.

Phil Raschker didn’t show up in a housedress with curlers in her hair when she accepted the Amateur Athlete of the Year award for metro Atlanta last Monday night. She was dressed to the nines. Below are some photos from the event, plus a press release sent out that gives more details on Phil’s special night.

Read the rest of this post »

Masters aren’t the only ones with beefs about site selection. When USATF announced in mid-December that Eugene would host the 2012 Olympic Trials, folks in Sacramento said: Say what? They were blindsided. They lost the 2008 Trials to Eugene fair and square, but the 2012 Trials weren’t even supposed to be in play. Or so they thought. But what Nike wants, Nike gets. So Nike got the Trials to Eugene four years hence, and a few weeks later they hire USATF CEO Craig Masback. Something stinks. And yesterday the home USATF association of Sacramento gave notice that they’ll file a grievance over the award of the 2012 Trials to Eugene. Of course, a grievance has little force of law. If Sacto doesn’t get no satisfaction, they could turn to the courts. Mr. Masback, do you swear….

Read the rest of this post »

Phil Raschker has to find another space in her trophy case. Monday night, the winner of 10 world titles at Riccione last summer won the Amateur Athlete of the Year award at the annual Atlanta Sports Awards. Phil, a tax accountant in nearby Marietta, Georgia, beat a couple Melanies for the honor (one a tennis player, the other a soccer goalie). Among the other winners honored at the Fox Theatre’s Egyptian Ballroom was Billy Payne, the 1996 Olympic poobah, who took home the Atlanta Sports Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Congrats, Phil. You make us proud. Now go find some tax deductions.

Andy Hecker of Ventura, the USATF official and meet organizer, is gearing up for his annual “USATF Southern California Masters Indoor Championships . . . Outdoors.” It’s Sunday, February 24, at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, and here is the meet Web site. Most indoor meets aren’t listed as “rain or shine,” but this one is. (In fact, several years ago, it was held in a drenching rain in Huntington Beach.) Andy explains the name: “Since there are no indoor track facilities in Southern California, we are holding this event on an outdoor track, but will offer all the indoor distances for our championship event. After the ‘indoor’ events are over, we will hold any events we have competitors and facilities for.” Included on the schedule is an “indoor pentathon,” one of the rare times when SoCal masters men can do the 60 hurdles, long jump, shot put, high jump and 1,000 meters and women the 60 hurdles, high jump, shot, long jump and 800. Check it out.

Kay Glynn of Iowa and Terry Cannon of Oregon shot to world records over the weekend. Kay, a new 55, cleared 2.82 meters (9-3) Saturday to top the listed W55 American indoor record of 2.76 (9-0 1/2) by Phil Raschker in 2005 at Nampa nationals and the W55 world indoor record of 2.81 (9-2 1/2) by Germany’s N.Y.-based Hillen von Maltzahn. Kay did this at a college meet at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. Results are here. Terry, 70, went 3.23 (10-7) after clearing an American record 3.16 (10-4 1/4) Sunday at the Columbia Striders Winter Classic in Kelso, Washington.

Read the rest of this post »