Hans Röcken, the new M65 indoor weight throw recordman, should be a sprinter — as fast as he replied to my email queries. One question was: What was your series? He says he opened with a 17.25 (56-7 1/4), which beat his Miyazaki WAVA friend Dick Hotchkiss’ record by nearly a foot and a half. Then came the bomb (19.12/62-8 3/4) followed by throws of 18.21 (59-9), 18.27 (59-11 1/4), 18.72 (61-5) and finally 14.70 (48-2 3/4). The meet was Dec. 21 in the Westphalian village of Warendorf. The venue was the Leichtathletik-Halle der Sportschule der Bundeswehr.

Read the rest of this post »

Hans Röcken, an M65 weightman in Germany, has shattered that age group’s world indoor record in the weight throw, spinning the 20-pound implement out 19.12 meters (62-8 3/4), reports a Dec. 23 posting on Annette’s Seite that cites this original report. That’s a monster 7 feet farther than the listed WR of 16.79 (55-1) by American Dick Hotchkiss at the Idaho masters nationals in March 2005. Hans, who won his first two world masters titles as an M40 in 1981, apparently had help from former world champion Karsten Kobs

Read the rest of this post »

Two of the starters at masters nationals last August had a slightly different accent from what you’d expect in North Carolina. No wonder. They were from Britain. In fact, they were taking part in a USATF/UK Athletics Starters Exchange Program. We sent Raymond Pierre and Tiffany Freddie-Banks across the pond. They sent Denis Murphy and Dr. Margaret Werrett, who shot some of the the guns at Charlotte. The report is online at the USATF Officials site. It includes recommendations for both U.S. and UK starters. An interesting note in the report: “The U.K. starters’ hold times were approximately 1.5 seconds. They rarely, if ever reached 2.0 seconds. Some starts were only 1 second.”

Jeff Hartwig, a world-class vaulter who turns 40 on Sept. 25, 2007, has higher aspirations than mere age-group records, but is acutely aware of the calendar. He writes me: “Tim Lobinger of Germany . . . planted a bug in my ear last year when he said that we could organize some late season meets maybe in Europe after my 40th B-day. The World Athletics Final is around Sept. 22 (in 2007), so many of the top guys will be around in Europe to cheer me on . . . . My coach, Earl Bell, holds the M40 indoor record so I don’t have a big desire to break his record, but the outdoor record would be something I would shoot for.”

Read the rest of this post »

Sylvester Stallone is one buff 60-year-old. I saw “Rocky Balboa“ with my wife and son this afternoon, and it was everything I expected. It was touching, thrilling and nostalgic. But what I ddn’t expect to feel is curiosity: What could Sly Stallone do as an M60 shot putter? Man, is he strong! I realize that Hollywood can make anyone into Superman, but you’re seeing a lot of real muscle in this movie. The obligatory training montage shows him lifting and squatting some mighty big free weights (with multiple 45-pound plates on the bars).

Read the rest of this post »

According to results of a Dec. 9 meet at the Vault High Athletics indoor facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Karen Rieger of Indy upped the American W40 record for the vault. Earlier this year, another site said of Karen: “Karen is in only her 3rd year vaulting. She is a truly inspiring athlete and person.” That’s apparently not the half of it, since she also goes by Dr. Rieger at the local med school. Karen cleared 2.98 (9-9 1/4) to top the listed AR of 2.82 (9-3) by Pam Swan last March (who also has an indoor mark of 2.92, 9-7).

Read the rest of this post »

Aiming to reduce a beastly job to bite-sized pieces, M50 hurdler Andy Hecker has put out a call for photos (action and portraits) of members of the USATF Masters Hall of Fame. Andy writes: “When one thinks about putting together a pictorial and written history of our sport, where should one start? I started at the Masters Hall of Fame. What is there? Just a list of names. We should do better. Who are these people? What have they accomplished? What do they look like?” BTW, new USATF Masters T&F Chairman Gary Snyder has appointed Andy as head of a Masters History Committee (or somesuch.) So his project now has an official USATF stamp of approval.

Read the rest of this post »

Some equal time now for guy hurdlers. I often cite Gail Devers’ marks in the 100-meter hurdles as being wrongly excluded from the W35 record books. A recent IAAF story reminds me I should speak up for M35 Allen Johnson as well. In mid-September, at age 35, Allen ran the 110s in 12.96 — easily (again) beating the listed M35 American record of 13.26 by Greg Foster. But the record remains in Foster’s hands three months later despite the site being “last updated 12/10/2006.”

Read the rest of this post »

“Rocky Balboa” began screening publicly today, and I scanned some reviews at random. The consensus on the fighter-at-60 film is echoed in this take from San Diego CityBEAT: “This time, both in the film and in the court of public opinion, Rocky and Stallone aren’t fighting just to beat up some muscle-bound jerk. They’re fighting for respect. And in both cases, they earn it.” In an AndPop review, we learn: “Ignore the flaws, because the most important question is: Does Stallone give Rocky the send-off he deserves? And the answer is a resounding yes.”

Read the rest of this post »

No free lunch? Well, there are free spikes. If you wear men’s size 9, Joshua Evans of Reebok International has some shoes for you. Joshua writes: “We are currently looking to recruit subjects to product test our prototype track spikes. Specifically, we are looking for men’s size 9 runners to test our sprint and distance spikes in January-February 2007.” Joshua’s title is associate research engineer, and he earlier posted a solicitation that indicated only serous trainers need apply. He also mentioned women. The promo said: “(Athletes) who run 40+ miles/week OR do 4+ track workouts in spikes/week are wanted for Reebok’s Human Performance Engineering Lab to serve as product testers.” Have at ’em!