Steve Vaitones, a USATF New England Association honcho who helps direct the Beantown masters nationals, says Boston “likely” will not seek the 2010 indoor meet. This contradicts what USATF Masters Chair Gary Snyder, a fellow New Englander, told me a couple weeks back — that Boston is bidding to host the 2010 indoor nationals. In a comment on the “George Mathews relents” entry, Steve writes: “We did not bid for 2009 in the hope of another site working into a rotation, and it looks like D.C. will fill the need. We’ll likely not bid for 2010 either to try to get another site — hopefully central or west — and managing group into the mix. Let’s see if any group can rally and deliver. After that, a nice 3-way rotation would benefit all.”

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USATF reports: “Five-time Olympian Gail Devers and her husband, Mike Phillips, have welcomed their second daughter into their family. Legacy Brielle Phillips was born October 23, measuring up at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 19 inches long. Legacy’s 2-year-old big sister, Karsen, is busily helping mom with feedings and diaper changes . . . Devers (40) is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and the 1993 world champion in the 100 meters and is a three-time world champion in the 100m hurdles, where she holds the American record. Devers competed during the 2007 indoor season and is also a coach and agent.” Gail has yet to utter the R-word (retirement), so hope exists she’ll try for her sixth Games in 2008.

No surprise here. Phil Raschker has been named IAAF-WMA Female World Masters Athlete of the Year by World Masters Athletics. It helps when you win 10 gold medals in worlds in a season of W60 world records. Winston Thomas of Great Britain, secretary of WMA, announced the selection yesterday on the WMA Web site. The top male masters athlete for 2007 is Andrew Jamieson of Australia, who swept the 5K, 10K and 20K race walks at Riccione and set several world records this year. Both picks were made by the WMA Council from a total of four women and three men nominated by the regions.

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Now that 35 is the new 40 (in terms of masters entry age), it’s getting easier to identify the fastest masters sprinter in the world. Or not. For the past few seasons, the fastest M35 has been Jeff Laynes of Northern California. But not anymore. Check out the IAAF Top Lists. Back at Osaka worlds, Japan’s Nobuharu Asahara ran a legal 10.14 for 100 meters two months after turning 35. On the other hand, Jamaica’s Christopher Williams is in the running for the “world’s fastest master” as well. Chris — born the Ides of March 1972 — ran the deuce in 20.17 in June in New York City. (And he has a barely-illegal 10.12 in the 1.)

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Happy birthday, Maria de Lurdes Mutola! You turn 35 today, which means you have a chance at setting lots of new middle-distance records. Your specialty is the 800, of course, and your 2007 season best of 1:56.98 is just short of the listed W35 world age-group record of 1:56.53 by Russia’s Lyubov Gurina in 1994. I know you’ve talked about retirement. But you’ve changed your mind before. In fact, you expected to retire after the 2004 Athens Games. Since you’ve lived in Eugene, Oregon, for years, it should be easy for you to drop by our masters nationals next August in Spokane. Of course, you might be busy preparing for your sixth Olympic Games. Whatever. Have a great season, Maria, and stick around!

Christel Donley, 72, of Colorado Springs proudly wears her gold medal from the W70 heptathlon at worlds. She earned it.

You can read the results, see her marks. But nothing on the Riccione Web site does justice to the conditions that faced Colorado’s Christel Donley and her fellow over-65 heptathletes on Sept. 4-5, 2007. In short, they were ghastly. She was ready for Riccione. A month earlier at Orono nationals, she set a W70 American record in the pentathlon. But that was in warm, benign conditions. The event in Italy was grief from the start. Here is her account, which takes the form of memories set down in a diary. She begins: “It is 2 o’clock in the morning. I am wide awake and rehearsing the happenings of the past two days. Was the competition for real? Did it really happen the way I recall it? Oh yes! The more I think about it, the more situations pop into my mind, a melodrama with luckily a comic ending.”

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I doubt Bud Held will ever forget this birthday. Today he turns 80, a couple days after an evacuation order was lifted for all residents of Del Mar, his coastal abode north of San Diego where fires have forced 500K from their homes. I had hoped to tell some cute stories about Bud, but recent events dictate against it. So I’ll just say, “Happy M80, Bud!” Despite a bum leg, he continues to set age-group world records in the vault, an event he enjoyed in his 1940s youth. Now that he’s 80, though, he’s going to let it all hang out — going for records in the javelin and other throws as well as the vault. In 2008, he has a good shot at three or four. And all this despite a bum knee he keeps wrapped up in a contraption he devised.

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Nine days ago, I posted an item about a rule-change proposal by George Mathews: to strip the pentathlon from the masters indoor and outdoor nationals. After a robust exchange of views and a poll favoring that USATF keep the pentathlon where it is (and not spinning it off into a separate championship), the former USATF Masters T&F chairman has had second thoughts. “I need to let go,” he says in a comment posted on the original blog entry. I presume this means he may yank the proposal.

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Coach Glenn McAtee at Clemson University in South Carolina has sent information on a series of three indoor throws meets at Clemson’s facility. He’ll act as meet director of the 2008 Clemson Indoor Throws Fest Series, which actually kicks off Dec. 2, 2007. The other two meets are Jan. 20 and Feb. 24, 2008. The meet information says: “The events will be contested in the following order: Open, High School, Masters, Youth.” And the price is nice: $10 per athlete. The events will be USATF-sanctioned.

Stacy Dragila holds the W35 world record in the vault at 14-9, but upping the mark isn’t her focus for 2008. It’s getting back to the Games, where she would be 37 years old. This thread on the T&FN message board talks about her chances. Former M40 vault WR man Roger Ruth, meanwhile, has been her unofficial statistician from the start. And he shared his record of Stay’s records with the t-and-f mailing list.

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