Merlene Ottey had a bad race at the Moscow Winter Meeting over the weekend. Her blocks slipped in a qualifying heat, and she ran “only” 7.54 seconds at age 46. (According to the Associated Press, Ottey blamed the starter, saying: “Unfortunately for me, it was a disaster today. It was the second heat and I didn’t have time to set my blocks and for me the race was over even before the starting.”) Ottey says her main goal this season will be the European Championships in Birmingham, England. Guess she’ll just have to be satisfied with being the first woman over 45 to duck under 8 seconds.

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Last week’s Thursday Night at the Races at the NYC Armory saw three potential distance records — not just the one by Kathy Martin mentioned here earlier. Kathy crushed the listed W55 world and American indoor records for 3000 meters with her 10:42.9. (The old record: 11:00.10 by Italy’s Lucia Soranzo in 2005. The old AR was 11:25.05 by Joan Ottoway in 2000.) But this, too: Mary-Louise Michelson ran 12:30.2 in W65 to miss the listed WR by less than two-tenths of a second but demolish the listed American record of 13:09.19 by Jeanne Daprano in 2003. My source in the New York Road Runners group, meet host, says W40 Marisa Hanson “unofficially broke the U.S. age group record, but in the absence of three official watches . . . her performance . . . could not be validated.” No time was given.

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In late December, the word went out: The 100th Millrose Games would have two events for masters -– men’s and women’s 4×400 relays. Clubs were urged to enter, and fast! Among the women’s teams answering the call was Shore Athletic Club of New Jersey. Mary Rosado, coordinator of the Millrose masters events (with help from Jim Reilly) wrote to Shore team captain Wendi Glassman: “I have accepted your team provisionally — if I don’t get the proper documentation, you won’t be able to run.” Fine and good. Wendi supplied the info Mary requested: proof that the athletes were USATF members and that the club was a USATF member.

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A couple weeks back, I posted news of a W60 world indoor record at 60 meters by Val Parsons in the UK. At the time, Val wrote a friend: ” ‘I hope that it will be ratified for record purposes. . . . Long story but I will relay it to you when resolved!’ ” It’s apparently been resolved, and a record form has been submitted. But what was the hangup? Well, for one thing the referee at the track meet refused to believe that Val was 60! Yeah, happens to us all the time. Anyway, Pete Mulholland of Running Fitness magazine details the incident in a report below.

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When you ask Jeff Hartwig to jump, the 39-year-old vault champ says, “How high?” That also applies to his willingness to help fellow jumpers. Today at the Boston Reebok Indoor Games (site of indoor masters nationals), Australia’s Steven Hooker showed up without his poles (they were lost in transit). So Jeff lent him his and Steven cleared a national record 5.81m/19-0.75 in his first ever indoor meet. “It’s the second time I’ve used Jeff’s poles and beat him,” Hooker told USATF. “But he’s won a lot more than me.” Hartwig took third at 5.51m/18-1. Also, 1996 Olympian and Massachusetts native Mark Coogan, 40, won the masters exhibition mile in 4:24.71.

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Olympian Joan Nesbit Mabe, a scholar of distance running, continues to make history herself. A week after turning 45, Joan returned to the University of North Carolina, her alma mater, this weekend and blistered a mile in 5:04.74. That beat the listed indoor WR of 5:08.6 by Canada’s Patty Blanchard in 2003. (The previous American age-group record of 5:08.81 was set by Lesley Chaplin-Swann less than a year ago.)

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Typical of a 400-meter man, Anthony Treacher is hanging in there. Treacher, the British ex-pat handed a year’s suspension on ridiculous grounds, has taken his fight to the next level. He’s written to two dozen leaders of World Masters Athletics, saying: “The enclosed letter . . . is primarily addressed to WMA officers to explain the circumstances surrounding an allegation in Winston Thomas’ letter suspending me, amongst other things, for allegedly making a ‘public attack’ on your WMA colleague Friedel Schunk. As Winston Thomas’ suspension letter is ‘Copied to UK: Athletics, Swedish Masters, EVAA, WMA, IAAF,’ I have done likewise.” Can a lone M65 sprinter touch the conscience of world masters track? We’ll see.

Kathyrn Martin’s time for the indoor mile Jan. 11 has now been posted. According to the New York Road Runners site: “Kathy Martin’s world record in the mile (was) the highlight (of the Armory all-comers meet).” But no sooner we learn of the 5:26.0 hand-time mark that we hear she set another W55 indoor best — an American record for 3,000 meters — at a meet Thursday night. My source didn’t give a time. Now we’re awaiting that clocking as well. (The listed AR for W55 is 11:25.05 by Joan Ottaway in 2000.) Kathy will eventually get an electronic time this season. In the meantime, stay well, KM. Go for it!

Henry Rono says on the letsrun message board that he’s down to 176 pounds (having lost 33). More significant, the former world record holder at a gazillion distances says he’s training with a 5000-meter road run in mind. He writes: “I’m focusing on (Nolan) Shaheed in April 5k masters race in California.” That would be the famous Carlsbad 5000, which Steve Scott helped launch more than 20 years ago. Henry turns 55 in February, and a big race in a major market would be incredible.

In the wake of his M75 world indoor record at 1500 meters, Ed Whitlock posted some comments on a letsrun message board on the remarkable feat. Ed writes: “Well 5:31 is maybe not too bad off a training regime of glacial paced long runs around the cemetery. But I don’t recommend it as proper training for the 1500 at least in the absence of some races at a similar distance. Anyway it is certainly not that great when you compare it to Earl Fee’s M75 indoor mile record of 5:41. Still hoping to improve though.”

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