Damn rain. If not for an apparent drizzle, the masters mile exhibitions at Indy today might have gone a lot faster. As expected, M40 Jim Sorensen outlegged M45 John Hinton in the men’s race, winning in 4:13.21 — despite being in 4:02 shape only weeks ago. John was 10 seconds back in 4:23.44 (but less than 5 seconds off the M45 American record). In the women’s race, age 44-ish Mary Grene edged Mary Thane, who is 43, 5:18.28 to 5:19.57. Thane won the masters 1500 exhibition at this meet two years ago in Carson, California.

In the mid-1990s, when I was just a pup, I began corresponding with one of the great track statisticians of this or any time: Peter Matthews of Britain. He graciously shared his masters records for 40-and-over men, as well as 35-39 women and 40-and-over women. It formed the heart of my records page. We have exchanged email annually ever since, and he’s always ready to bail me out of a record bind. He’s a world track treasure. (Here’s a sample of some recent work.) Now he’s in a London hospital, being tested after a scary episode following the Bislett Games in Norway, where he worked. Peter’s son, Mike, posted a note on the Track & Field News message board.

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Jeff Hartwig delivered yesterday at the USATF open nationals at Indy. He took second in the vault with a pedestrian (for him) 5.70 (18-8 1/4). Of course, he’s jumped much higher this year — 5.85 (19-2 1/4) in May. Not bad for a 39-year-old. But I’m sure Jeff fell down completely yesterday at his most important task — running around getting signatures for his masters record form! Yes, it’s my monthly rant.

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Our 36-year-old sprinters had a rough time at USATF open nationals yesterday in Indianapolis. In the men’s prelims, Jeff Laynes finished in 14.94 seconds after pulling a muscle and limping in. And Chryste Gaines fell short in her comeback, clocking the day’s slowest women’s time, 11.69. But hey! How about our 45-year-old spearchucker? Arne Roald Bradstock took 12th with a toss of 70.44 meters ( 231-01) on his first throw. He had only three throws, and didn’t get a final three.

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My apologies to Caren Ware. She became the first woman in her age group to complete the new women’s decathlon at the Alabama multis meet, so she has first dibs on the W40 WR. I neglected to notice that a few days ago. Her local California paper told her story. “Remember when we thought marathons were too harsh a distance for a female and a few gutsy women wore ball caps and ran anyway?” Caren told the paper. “Now we are showing that we can do some fabulously fit things over 40!” U bet, Caren. Best of luck at Riccione!

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Roald Bradstock, 45, and Jeff Laynes, 36, compete in prelims today at the USATF open national championships — which serve as the IAAF worlds trials (picking the team for Osaka). Roald is in Flight 1 (listed as Arne Bradstock). So he gets to watch one of the athletes he once coached in Flight 2 — American record holder Breaux Greer, who gave a great press conference yesterday. Jeff will have to overachieve to make it to the next round in the 100. (Top 2 plus next best 8 advance to semis.)

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Germany’s version of USATF has a new, improved home page. And a nice portion is devoted to “Senioren” — or masters track. Unlike the USATF Masters maze, the German site is clean, well-organized and full of groovy content. Especially helpful is a site map and search function. For the heck of it, I typed in “Senioren,” and found a mess of files, including this German masters records PDF. All in about 10 seconds. Don’t bother looking for a search function at usatf.org. They don’t have one. (I’ve been nagging USATF webmaster Keith Lively for years, but no dice.) Anyway, at least we have a model for our own official masters home page — should we ever get one. Check out the Germans’ news archive for masters track. God I want that for USATF.

All-comers meets get a bad rap. “They’re for kids. Not well-officiated. Don’t have accurate timing or measuring.” You’ve heard ’em all. But for masters, all-comers can be a godsend. And many are conducted at the highest standards of USATF officiating. One hopes that Luke’s Locker Meets in Dallas and Fort Worth are. From Texas sprinter John Simpson comes word of possibly the fastest 100 by an M40 in American history. John writes: “I won the 100 in 10.50 and finished second in the 200m in 22.03 . . . no wind gauge at this meet, but all times were FAT. Lester Mount (USATF Masters T&F secretary) was in charge of the FAT machine.”

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Charlotte nationals were a scorcher last summer. This month, conditions were similar at the USATF national decathlon/heptathlon championships in Alabama. But meet organizer (and world-class multi-man) Bill Murray was ready. Cases of Gatorade, cold-as-ice towels. Athletes were pampered as they persevered amid worse-than-usual tortures. Now USATF Masters multi czar Jeff Watry and Bill Murray have provided complete results. Here are men’s decathlon results and even women’s decathlon results. And here are the heptathlon results, which details Phil Raschker’s mind-boggling world record.

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John Seto throws his superweight around at 2007 Boston nationals. Photo by Cheryl Treworgy

Dave Clingan, whose seasonal world and USA masters rankings began as a hobby in 1999 but grew into a professional gig with state-of-the-art software, is stepping down as USATF Masters Rankings chair. Why? He writes: “Several reasons, but the most important one is simple. John (Seto) can do a better job than I can. The rankings have entered a phase of advanced database technology. This technology, which supports all the new and exciting features of our latest rankings system, is beyond my expertise.” John, an M40 thrower who created the new rankings software, is taking over from a legend — and he knows it. Interviews with both follow.

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