Very sad news to report. Dr. Ladislav “Lad” Pataki — beloved to masters throwers and famed as an East Bloc sports chemist who defected to the United States in 1985 — is battling brain cancer. His illness was confirmed yesterday by his close friend Ed Burke, the three-time Olympic hammer thrower who helped engineer Lad’s escape (with wife and daughter) from Czechoslovakia at a time when “traitors” were shot. Ed writes: “I can assure you that he would like to receive cards from well wishers. . . . Those who know him personally would be welcome visitors. . . . He can be reached at 4858 Poston Drive, San Jose, CA 95136.”

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On June 21, 2003, Leonard Hill of Klamath Falls, Oregon, ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:10.41 at the Hayward Masters Classic in Eugene, Oregon. A remarkable time. Leonard had turned 50 the previous August, and his Hayward mark was an American record for his age group. Cool! But wait! This is odd: The USATF Web site lists the M50 American record for the 3K steeplechase as “9:45.38 Leonard Hill (OR) 06/21/03.” Say what? That was the reaction of a masters gent who emailed me this week on the discrepancy. So I took a closer look.

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Brett Honeycutt of The Charlotte Observer reports: “Former East Mecklenburg High star Joan Nesbit Mabe, a 1996 Olympian and three-time All-American at North Carolina, recently broke the World and U.S. records in the women’s master’s indoor mile for 45-49-year olds at her college alma mater. . . . ‘I wasn’t planning to break the record at this meet, but when I realized I was running fast enough to do it, I decided to go for it,; Nesbit Mabe said in an e-mail. ‘My plan was to run this first mile at Carolina to see where my fitness was, then to — hopefully — improve in my next attempt to break it.’ She said she hopes to break five minutes Feb. 17 at Virginia Tech and to go after the 1,500-meter outdoor U.S. record.” A sub-5 mile would put Joan on a pedestal with the legendary Yekaterina Podkopayeva of Russia, the only woman to go sub-5 at age 45. Podko did that in 1997 — running 4:48.42.

Gail Devers has company as an impressive masters sprinter on Friday. Up at the Knights of Columbus Saskatchewan Indoor Games in Saskatoon, 36-year-old Jeff Laynes competed in the 50-meter dash. Under the headline “Quick Nic / Macrozonaris gives another dashing performance at Games,” Dustin Munroe of the StarPhoenix newspaper shares an interesting story about the long-running rivalry of an American and Canadian. I first wrote about Jeff last May. (Jeff kicked off his season Jan. 20 with a 60-meter victory in 6.75 seconds in Boise, Idaho, bettering the listed M35 American indoor record of 6.98 by Mitchell Lovett in 1998.)

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Jeff Hartwig, who turns 40 in September, reportedly topped 19-0 1/4 at the Millrose Games yesterday but steadied the bar on the way down, and thus was called for illegal “Volzing.” So the clearance was canceled. But oh my! Not bad for ol’ Jeff. Frank Litsky’s story in The New York Times further reported: “Hartwig’s poles finished second and third. Brad Walker of the United States won, clearing 19-¼ on his first attempt. Steven Hooker of Australia, ranked No. 1 in the world, was second, clearing 19-¼ on his second attempt. Hartwig, a five-time Millrose winner, took third at 18-8¼. Hooker used poles Hartwig had lent him because Hooker had no idea where his own poles were. ”I last saw them when I checked in at Sydney a week ago Tuesday,’ he said. ‘The airline says maybe they’re on a plane somewhere.’ ”

Forty-year-old Gail Devers, in lane 4 between an Olympic champion and a world champion, showed she’s the still the best. Five minutes ago at the Millrose Games, she won the Visa women’s 60-meter hurdles in 7.86 seconds. They raced over 33-inch hurdles, not the 30-inch masters hurdles, so technically it’s not a masters record. (But who’s kidding whom? Certainly not announcer Dwight Stones, who amazingly noted that Gail had “smashed the masters record.” Dick Patrick of USA Today also mentioned masters — but erred on the margin of breakage).

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A spot was empty in the women’s 4×4 at tonight’s 100th Millrose Games. New Jersey’s Shore Athletic Club was, as promised, not allowed to compete. Results show the winners as Athena Track Club. The Nike Central Park Track Club, which included Mary Rosado, the coordinator of the masters events at this meet, took third, but the men’s team from Central Park TC won in 3:35.86. That’s a great time for the tight turns of the 160-yard board track at Madison Square Garden. The listed American men’s 4×4 indoor record remains 3:33.3 by the NY Pioneer Club in 1980.

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Four months ago, I noted Roger Kingdom’s challenge to post-40 hurdlers: Let’s see who’s the greatest masters timber topper. Today I learned that he’s added some other masters events to his April 21 meet in Pennsylvania, where he coaches the CUP track team. Roger writes of the hurdle showdown: “Yes! It’s still on. However, I need for all of the 40 and over hurdlers who are interested in competing to contact me at kingdom@cup.edu . . . . We have also added the 5K, 800m and 100m races for Masters over 40 to the schedule. Please keep in mind, we will post qualifying standards for the 5K. This is to keep the race competitive and fun. We will have all of the meet and entry info up on Direct Athletics within the week.”

In June 2005, the wires were agog about a Japanese geezersprinter named Kozo Haraguchi. He ran 100 meters in 22.04 seconds — a world age-group record by 2 seconds! (And in the rain!) Now I’ve finally seen the performance. He ran the race solo (as this video shows). This happens at some meets where officials think: Gotta keep everyone in their age group! Well, there aren’t many sprinters in Kozo’s. Fortunately, a couple months later he brought the time down to 21.69 in Osaka, where he presumably ran against some other gents. And that’s the M95 world record, which the Age-Graded Tables say is equivalent to an open (20-30) time of 10.68. Personally, I think it’s worth 9.68.

Mark Cleary, Wendi Glassman and others have been carrying on a lively debate about whether Shore AC’s entry in the Millrose Games 4×4 relay is kosher. But many questions are still hanging, most notably: Will the Shore AC masters women run Friday night? Here are some points I’d like to see resolved, and soon.

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