Shaheed, Harvey thrilled to be chosen athletes of year
Over the weekend, W40 Alisa Harvey and M55 Nolan Shaheed received word of their selection as USATF Masters Athletes of the Year via email from Awards Committee chairman Dave Clingan. Nolan’s reaction? “I was TOTALLY floored,” Nolan writes from Pasadena. “It is a great honor and pleasure to even be nominated — but to become athlete of the year is an exhilarating experience. If I were to win a Grammy for music, it wouldn’t mean as much to me. I plan on running faster for the rest of the season and try to set more records, and I’d LOVE to race Alisa in the 800 since we are running about the same time.” (Me: Now wouldn’t THAT be a kick!)
June 5, 2007
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Merlene Ottey, 47, clocks 11.83 in outdoor opener
Merlene Ottey, who turned 47 on May 10, has set another age record. In her outdoor season debut Saturday in Norway, she ran a hand-timed 11.4 heat and then an auto-timed 11.83 final for 100 meters — which shatters the unofficial age-47 record of 12.54 by Germany’s Karin Von Riewel in 1996. Merlene’s news page reports: “Ezinne Okparaebo of Norway won the race in 11.43 sec. — close to the Norwegian record. Merlene Ottey said: “This was an OK start for me. I am absolutely not in shape at the moment. If I only could get a little more training, my races will be faster. But I opened better than last year.” Last August, Merlene ran 11.41 for the W45 WR.
June 4, 2007
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Harvey, Shaheed named masters Athletes of the Year
Two record-setting milers have been named Athletes of the Year by USA Masters Track & Field. Forty-one-year-old Alisa Harvey of Manassas, Virginia, and 57-year-old Nolan Shaheed of Pasadena, California, are the first AoY picks under a new system in which all honorees will be saluted in person at the Athletes Banquet at the USATF national masters outdoor championships, which this year will be held in Orono, Maine. The latest picks become part of the awards’ 30-year history.
June 4, 2007
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Sorensen claims huge world record at 1500 meters
Jim Sorensen is ready to go sub-4! Tom McGlynn of Focus-N-Fly running club shares details of one of the greatest masters runs of the decade — a sub-3:45 1500 by 40-year-old Jim: “On a night when the Oregon Track Club showed why Frank Gagliano is still the best middle-distance coach in the country, it was the man closest in age to ‘Gag’ who stole the show. Jim Sorensen became the fastest . . . over-40 1500 runner in history at the Jim Bush/Southern California USATF Championships hosted by Occidental College. Sorensen’s 3:44.06 broke the former (M40) best of Luiz Jose Gonsalvez, who ran 3:44.89 as a 41-year-old in 1999.”
Bradstock qualifies for IAAF worlds trials at age 45
Roald Bradstock didn’t mope about losing his M45 world record in the javelin. He went out yesterday in Atlanta and upped his own American record to 72.02 (236-3) –just achieving the “A” standard for the USATF open nationals later this month in Indianapolis! (The “A” standard is 72.00.) The meet is the USA trials for the IAAF World Championships in Osaka. Roald reports: “At the Quicksilver track, I broke my record again . . . This throw now qualifies me for the 2007 USA Track & Field National Championships, where I will become the oldest javelin thrower ever to compete at nationals!”
June 3, 2007
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Javelinists coming out of the woodwork this season
Is 2007 the Moment of the Miler? Mebbe. But a case can be made that in masters it’s also the Year of the Spear. Besides the latest Bradstock and Blank WRs, we see lots of evidence of folks giving the stick the old college chuck. Two recent examples: M60 Dick Dana in Michigan and M50 Jim Fuqua in Alabama. And God bless the Net. Dick is quoted as saying: “I knew there (were) track competitions for seniors, I just didn’t know where. Then I found it on the Internet and then I wondered if I could put enough back together to compete and I got started.”
June 3, 2007
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Dr. Track’s newsletter cures ignorance of our history
Don’t look now, but thrower John Godina is now a masters athlete. The Olympian and three-time world champ turned 35 on Thursday. I was reminded of this by an amazing new newsletter that’s being generated by Marc Grosso, “Dr. Track.” His email publication is called This Day in Athletics Weekly Newsletter. Marc sent a sample and writes: “The information covers one week (the coming week) and the information is grouped by day (Sunday to Saturday). The newsletter is rather long due to the fact that we are coming into the active portion of the Athletics season.” Here’s where to go to subscribe. Pete Mundle, eat your heart out.
June 2, 2007
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Germany posts its own masters seasonal rankings
Gerd Möhle of Lower Saxony, a German state, has posted 2007 outdoor rankings for age groups M30 to M80 and W30 to W65. They’re not for all of Germany, though. Still, it’s nice to see other countries sharing top marks in advance of the Riccione world meet in September. Any other nations doing the rankings thing? Lemme know. (The official USATF rankings are at mastersrankings.com, of course.)
Wayward discus from young thrower blamed in tragedy
Seth Brower, director of the Texas meet where M70 thrower Chaunce Cook suffered fatal injuries from an errant discus, reports: “As this was a USATF-sanctioned event, I have been advised that I can only comment on what I witnessed firsthand. I was officiating at the other discus field when I heard the commotion. I turned and saw the marshall (also our on-site doctor) running to assist. EMS arrived and eventually the helicopter. USATF is gathering the reports from officials on hand. These reports are sent to USATF representative and I am not privy to them, nor any medical reports, etc.” Seth says the meet was insured. Athletes have added more details.
M70 thrower dies in Texas after being hit by discus
Clarence “Chaunce” Cook, a 73-year-old thrower, has died from injuries suffered after being hit by an errant discus two weeks ago in Elgin, Texas. Seth Brower, director of the meet where Chaunce was hurt May 19, shared this note: “It is with deep sadness that I inform you of the passing of Mr. Clarence (Chaunce) Cook. Chaunce was injured at the recent meet in Elgin. He was a masters thrower and a frequent competitor at our events, as well as the Texas Senior Games . . . I know the family thanks the throwing community, as well as all the other track and field participants, for their thoughts and prayers during these past two weeks.”
