Nearly 60 masters-age athletes — including Allen Johnson, Gail Devers and Jeff Hartwig — are nominees for Masters Athletes of the Year. The vast majority are age-group record holders and national masters champions. (See the list below.) If a deserving athlete isn’t mentioned, here is good news: Dave Clingan, chair of the USATF Masters Awards Committee, has written his group: “Nominations will still be accepted for two more weeks. I’ve heard from a couple people that their April National Masters News arrived very late last month and others have stated that they need more time. So, nominations will remain open until May 17.”

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Tom Meyer of San Diego’s Scripps Ranch neighborhood isn’t a household name in masters track. Wait till Riccione. An M55 thrower, Tom set an American record in the 25-pound weight toss March 16 at Cal State Northridge with a heave of 18.04 meters (59-2-3/4). That beats the listed AR of 17.87 (58-7 1/2) by Hank Konen of Las Vegas in October 2006. Tom later won the M55 title at Boston indoor nationals, throwing 17.21 (56-5 3/4). How’d he get so good? His wife, Wendy, writes: “He credits Olympic hammer throwers Harold Connolly, Anatoli Bondarchuk and Juri Tamm with teaching him the techniques that have kept him in the sport since college.” Also credit Wendy herself. She paid his first masters entry fee. Read on.

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Stacy Dragila turned 35 in March 2006 but didn’t compete last year due to injury. Watch out, folks. She’s baaaacccccck! Last Saturday, Stacy vaulted 4.30 (14-1 1/4) in Provo, Utah. That betters the listed W35 WR of 4.22 by Romania’s Gabriella Mihalcea in 1999. The listed W35 American record is 3.53 (11-7) by Sue DiMarco in 1998. This weekend, Stacy is entered in the Modesto Relays, which also is letting masters studs Jeff Laynes (100/200) and Aaron Thigpen (100) compete in the invitational sprints, according to this updated event field. But long jumper Mike Powell isn’t listed. Mike is targeting the M40 world record in the long jump. Probably at a German meet this summer, he informed the IAAF recently.

Barcelona and Sydney medalist Irina Privalova is 38, but she still has Olympic fever. Her coach/hubby tells the IAAF: ““The aim is still the same – participation in the 2008 Olympic Games. The exact distances are yet to be considered, but the likely choice will be the usual 100 and 200 metres.” In 2000, Irina won the 400 hurdles title in her first season (and fifth race) at that distance. I guess 38 is the new 18.

David Pain is our founding father — the meet organizer who launched our niche sport in 1966 with his “masters miles” and later national and world masters meets. Already a member of the USATF Masters Hall of Fame, David has been honored again. This time an award has been named for him. The USATF Masters Awards Committee under Dave Clingan (with the Executive Committee’s assent), unanimously voted to name its annual service award the David Pain Distinguished Service Award. It used to be called Masters Administrator of the Year Award, but Dave thought this was too confining. I had the honor of calling David last night at his home in San Diego to inform him of this latest honor. His response: “That’s a wonderful idea!”

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Americans headed for Riccione in September are bracing for sticker shock — on everything. The dollar/euro exchange rate is obscene. But the flip side is that Europeans can spend like tycoons when they visit the United States and Canada. So says Annette and Robert Koop on their German masters track site. Quoting German-born athlete Hillen von Maltzahn of New York, the Koops encourage their readers to compete in the Canadian and USATF masters nationals in August — and take advantage of the favorable exchange rate.

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Over the weekend, a masters athlete wrote to USATF: “The masters going to the world (meet) in Italy have no uniforms available and they’re mandatory. Applications are due May 14th. Any suggestions for us?” The note was forwarded to Sherry Quack, USATF associations and member services manager. Sherry replied: “There are uniforms available to the masters athletes going to Riccione. They’re listed on the first page of the USA Supplemental Form (available are singlets, airborne tops, unitards, and thrower’s shirts) and are $25 each. If you want matching pieces, you can find them at the (this) website.” But that led to other questions.

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Rolland Ranson is stoked. As meet director of this summer’s masters nationals in Maine, he’s on a Q&A roll. Peter Taylor submitted some more questions to him, and Coach Ranson answers with energy and enthusiasm. Part 1 of the interview is here. Interesting narrative device employed below (the athletes are composites, Pete says). Taylor writes: “Coach Ranson, here are some letters I created that might help to elicit some valuable information about your meet in the first week of August (University of Maine, Orono).”

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Three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton told her old hometown paper in Wisconsin that she’s thinking of trying for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Opening Ceremonies at Beijing are August 8, 2008 — Suzy’s 40th birthday. To make the 1500 team, she’d have to run a Trials qualifying standard of 4:19.50 (or 4:10 if more than 30 run the slower time). She said in the article that she’d use the Crazylegs Classic 8K (5 mile) run as a test of her fitness. Her time was 37:11 — or 7:26 mile pace. Not bad for most 38-year-olds. She’ll have to crank it up a few notches in 2008.

Jim Sorensen turns 40 in nine days — May 10. But his outing at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational over the weekend shows he has some work to do to become the first sub-4 miler outdoors at 40. This Flocast video shows his 3:57.08 race (for 1500) at Stanford. He started at the back, lost contact with the pack and didn’t show much kick. Earlier, in this Flocast interview, he said he felt fine (but suffered nerves). Jim is acutely aware of the M40 records (ratified and not) and appears confident he can give them a shot. Let’s hope his next outing is better. Go Jim!