M40 speedsters Aaron Thigpen and Rod Jett posted great times yesterday the USATF Pacific Association Masters Championships at the College of San Mateo. Aaron, our own Maurice Greene, ran his umpteenth sub-11 100 of the past three years, clocking 10.78 with a legal wind. Rod ran the 110 hurdles in a legal 14.10 — a time that would have been an M40 world record until about five years ago.

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In recent years, studies have emerged that say stretching before competition doesn’t help performance. Well, USATF took note of this major debate and is doing something about it — launching its own study. This is a great use of the Web and membership. Wonder why it’s never been done before. In any case, why stop with a stretch study? A broad-involvement study could tackle lots of questions, especially in masters track. For example: Is the flop or straddle best for older athletes? Express your own ideas for experimental testing. Maybe we can have our own trials.

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Nadine O’Connor today lowered her own W65 world record in the 100, running 14.10 seconds at Cal State San Marcos in north San Diego County. Moments later, Harold Tolson ran against other M65s in his first race since his abrupt retirement four years ago. Harold, who turns 70 in December, said he entered to guage his speed. His USATF membership has lapsed, but he’s now revisit his decision to quit the sport.

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An Olympics without track and field? Unthinkable! But that’s the case this September in San Diego, where the Senior Olympics entry form says the annual meet has been “postponed till 2008.”. Why? I’m not sure. It might have something to do with the fact that the organization has no executive director at the moment. Brad Pagano, exec in recent years, reportedly left for the East Coast a few months ago, following his wife who got a job out there. A young lady who replaced him also is gone.

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Bob Lida of Wichita apparently plans to rewrite the M70 record book at Louisville. Yesterday in the 200 prelims of the National Senior Olympics, he led all qualifiers with a 27.26 into a 1.0 mps wind. The world age-group record is 26.71. The American record? Payton Jordan’s 26.8 hallowed hand-time from 1987. In the 400 finals yesterday, Bob clocked 1:01.59 — a national record. (Old: 1:02.2h by John Alexander in 1989.) In the M75 high jump, Richard Lowery of Florida set a national record, clearing 1.39/ 4-6 3/4 to beat the listed best of 1.34/(4’4¾”) by Ray Propst
in 2005. In the M80 high jump, a national record went to Bill Wambach of Wisconsin. His 1.24/4-0 3/4) beat the old record of 1.22/4-0 by Virgil McIntyre way back in 1991. Keep it up, ladies and gents. You’re going wild!

Payton Jordan, the masters sprint god and subject of a recent biography, is moving from Santa Barbara to the Orange County town of Laguna Beach, (later correction: He moved to Leisure World in Laguna Woods.) according to this gem of an article. Payton is moving this week, John Zant writes, to be closer to his two daughters and their families. “He’s leaving with good memories but sad ones, too.” He had been living with his late wife, Marge, at the retirement community of Vista Del Monte. Now 90, Payton already has indicated he won’t compete again in track. My hope: that he graces local meets as a spectator, offering the enthusiastic support and wisdom that made him a coaching legend and friend to thousands.

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Randy Sturgeon’s hands are full as publisher of National Masters News. Getting the monthly paper produced, printed and mailed is a monster task. (Not to mention selling ads.) The last thing he needed was a botched editorial product. Sadly, his initial pick for editor, Juliet Wahleithner, was an embarrassment. I haven’t detailed the shameful production and proofreading errors of the past few issues, but they were many and egregious (including a set of results that looked like computer gibberish and labeling the June issue as May. Appalling.) So Randy, in his best diplomatic way, has replaced Juliet after only five issues with a W40 runner named Carmel Papworth-Barnum, whom he says has “a great deal of experience in newsletter production and editing.”

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CSTV.com has posted a great video (click on “1 mile in record time”), showing Jim Sorensen’s M40 mile record yesterday at Bloomington, Indiana. Brett Hess of College Sports TV called the race (with Indiana Invaders coach Matt Ebersole) and interviewed Jim and prep star Matt Centrowitz afterward. Track was wet after an earlier rainstorm, but temps had dropped from 86 to 71, Brett said. After running 4:05.27, Jim said he felt “pretty sluggish out there, like pulling a piano. Getting tired a little at the end of the season. I couldn’t get out as quick as I wanted. But I knew I had something left because having the incentive of the American record was pretty good motivation.”

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Tom Fischer of MaxPreps.com interviewed 17-year-old miler Matt Centrowitz and 40-year-old masters record holder Jim Sorensen yesterday morning at the Indiana track where they’d run their miles that evening. Tom’s video is viewable here (but you’ll need to type Centrowitz into the search field first). I’m confident that video of the race itself will be posted at the same site later, maybe today.

Merlene Ottey not running sub-12 for 100? Unthinkable! Funny how we apply world-class standards to a woman 47 years old. In any case, Merlene took last yesterday at an IAAF Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic, clocking 12.03 seconds, probably her slowest time since grade school. On the bright side, she now has 2 points in the World Athletics Tour prize race. (She’s tied for 61st among sprinters, though.)