Another masters event bites the dust. A couple years ago, the California State Games dropped “adult track.” This season the San Diego Senior Olympics has canceled the track meet. The latest outrage: The Empire State Games in New York have banished hammer throwers to a distant venue — and dropped the masters hammer altogether — only days before the event. Our M50 friend Peter Van Aken, gold medal winner in the hammer two years ago at the ESG, writes: “On Tuesday, July 24, I received a phone call from Susan Maxwell, assistant to the Masters Division director, saying that the masters hammer throw event had been canceled from the 2007 edition of the Empire State Games, an event listed in the program as taking place Saturday, July 28.”

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Jeanne Daprano’s W70 American record 800 at Oxy is chronicled in this new photo album. My favorite shot shows Jeanne approaching the 400 mark, with members of the SoCal TC (including recordman Nolan Shaheed) watching in amazement. After the race, she gets a debriefing by her coach, Jackson Steffes, himself an American record holder (in the M50 4×4). The final photo shows Jeanne with Nolan while she was hunting for signatures for her record paperwork — a chore that shouldn’t have to happen at championship meets. Does Alan Webb have to put up with this crap?

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The same day Alan Webb was erasing the 25-year-old American record in the mile, Frank Condon was doing a number on the 35-year-old U.S. mile record in his age group. Saturday at the USATF West Region Championships, Frank turned four laps in 5:12.21 to beat the listed American M65 outdoor mile record of 5:22 set by Monty Montgomery in 1972 — the oldest mile record on the USATF books. (See complete results from Occidental College near Los Angeles.) But the athlete of the meet probably was 70-year-old Jeanne Daprano of suburban Atlanta, Georgia, who set American age-group records in the 400 (Saturday) and 800 (Sunday), going 78.64 and 3:07.69. In May, Jeanne became the first W70 to crack the 7-minute barrier for the mile, so she’s definitely in world record form.

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The press office at the University of Maine has posted a longish release about next month’s masters nationals. The USATF Masters Media Committee, under Chairman Bob Weiner, will have its own, more trackcentric, release coming shortly. Among other things, UMaine says it will host masters from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. But I especially like this folksy note: “Two of several Maine competitors are 75-year-old Bill Donnell, a Downeast sawmill operator from Sedgwick, Maine, who excels in the hammer throw, and UMaine philosophy professor and runner Doug Allen, a Yale track star in the early 1960s.”

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About 10 years ago, as Steve Scott began targeting the world record in the masters mile (then M40), I dubbed Steve the “American mile record holder for life.” No more. Today in Belgium, Alan Webb broke Steve’s mile AR by running 3:46.91. (Video will be posted on Flotrack.) Steve never got the masters record (partly due to injuries and fighting testicular cancer), but he held on to the mile record for a generation — the 25th anniversary was only a couple weeks ago. As it happens, I may have been the last person to publicly acknowledge Steve’s status in his presence. On June 30, at the Chuck McMahon meet in San Diego County, Steve was handling the announcing chores because the scheduled announcer’s mother had died.

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Well, thanks to that fancy new Finish Line Pundit blog by Jimmie Markham, I’ve discovered a great new way to gain and share feedback. Below is a poll that works quite nicely. Supposedly, it doesn’t allow you to vote multiple times from the same computer. Whatever. It’s still cool. Anyone can create a poll and post it on their Web site or blog. So here we go. Lemme know what you think of this great new tool.

Some folks weren’t happy with how the Trojan Masters Meet was run July 8 out at USC in Los Angeles (citing long delays and computer glitches), but at least we have partial results posted now. Stan Whitley, 61, posted a great time in the 100 — a wind-legal 12.36. That’s the fastest U.S. time in his age group this year — and probably in the world. Michael Sullivan, 46, ran a fabulous 4 in 51.04 — also the speediest this season (and less than a second off Fred Sowerby’s 1994 world record of 50.20)!

Marco Segatal is ready for Riccione. An Italian high jumper who will compete before supportive crowds at worlds, Marco boosted his own M45 outdoor WR this month to 2.04 meters (6-8 1/4), according to this Italian report. That mark ties the highest M45 leap in history — an indoor mark by American Dennis Lewis. Marco jumped 2.01 (6-7) last April. The listed M45 world outdoor record is 2.00, shared by Finland’s Asko Pesonen and American Bruce McBarnette.

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My masters moles remind me: “Time is running out to have your paperwork, if you need it, in time for Italy.” By paperwork, we mean the Therapeutic Use Exemption, or TUE, form — an application to compete in Riccione if you’re taking “illegal” drugs under doctor’s orders. “Most of us need at one time or another some prescription medication,” says one mole. “I was pretty sure that the Voltaren I take for my aching body was OK, but now I have the printout to prove.” USATF provides this info. Here’s another antidoping site.

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Results of the Pride open meet in San Francisco have journeyed our way, and they include confirmation of a huge W65 world record in the 5000 by Marie-Louise Michelsohn, visiting from her home in New York State. Her time of 20:27.08 — an amazing 6:35 mile pace — bettered the listed world age-group record of 20:42.4 by Australia’s Theresia Baird last March in Melbourne. It was her seventh world record this season (by my count.) And according to the Age-Graded Tables, it’s roughly equivalent to an open mark of 14:15.27.

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