Friday morning I got a Facebook message from a well-known masters track official. Now I think his account was hacked, and it wasn’t him contacting me. “I’m fine doing great and very happy and excited, because yesterday is the happiest day of my life,” said the message, later adding: “Didn’t you heard [sic] about the National Endowment for Humanities assistance program helping some selected names online?” I was told: “Five of my friend [sic] got a grant from them and I also got $50,000 from them, how comes [sic] you haven’t gotten yours yet?” I messaged a Facebook user, and was told: “CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOUR NAME IS STILL AVAILABLE ON OUR WINNER LIST WHICH WE CAN OFFER A GRANT…. ARE YOU READY TO CLAIM YOUR WINNING MONEY FROM US HERE….” That was the final tipoff. I looked up NEH scams and came across this official warning. The FB page I contacted has been deleted. But the scam continues. So change your FB password if you think someone is piggybacking your account.
The Americas Masters Games wrapped up Wednesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the results are here.Joy Upshaw won six golds, and was close to her own W55 American record (13.04) in the 80-meter hurdles. She ran 13.09 into a 1.2mps wind. But I was especially impressed by the range of foreign entrants. They came from other Americas — Bermuda, Barbados, Peru, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Argentina. But also from across a pond or two: UK, Poland, Australia, Lithuania, Germany, Italy and India. And I smiled to see perhaps a first: mixed-country relay teams. What fun that must have been! Good job, AMG. (And here’s video of M100 and W100 entrants running the 100. “Winning makes me happy,” says the lady.)
Roland Gröger lives in Berlin with his family. He’s a sports, German and math teacher in a primary school. He competed in East Berlin until age 25 in 1989 — the year the wall fell. And then he took a 15-year break. At age 40, he says, he resumed track. And he hasn’t slowed down since his German Democratic Republic days. I asked him about his all-time youth bests. He said 60 in 6.92, 100 in 10.7 (hand-timed), 200 in 22.0 (also hand-timed) and 400 in 53.5 (must have been in a drenching tornado). He owns 2014 Budapest world indoor gold in the 4×200 and many golds and silvers in recent European masters championships. He sent a link to video of his M50 indoor world record for 400 (a 52.39 that I didn’t do justice!) He graciously answered other questions as well. Responses were edited for clarity.
M60 photographer/sprinter Dave Albo tells awonderful storyon his blog. While shooting the 50-meter dash at the Rocky Mountain Masters Games in Fort Collins, Colorado, he captured a tumble near the start. But then something amazing happens. Dave tells the story: “Bobby Fischer (Ric Rojas Running) started fine, but the guy to his left took a HARD fall early in the proceedings. Bobby aborted his own race and went to his fallen comrade’s aid, very similar to what we saw Abbie D’Agostino and Nikki Hamblin doing for each other in the Olympics 5k. Bobby stayed there at the side of his downed fellow, offering comfort and support. After a long delay, Bobby was rewarded with a do over thanks to the compassionate race officials, and he ran a respectable 50-meter time trial, with fully automatic timing.”
Bobby Fischer stops race to check on fellow sprinter. Anyone know fallen gent?
Germany’s Roland Gröger on Sunday posted a video to his YouTube channel claiming to show him running 400 meters in 51.02 at age 52 — beating the listed M50 world record of 51.39 by American Fred Sowerby in 1999. Roland won the 400 at Lyon worlds (and took silver in 200 and bronze in the 100), so his claim is plausible. A German report said he ran 51.42 at the Charlottenburg Mittsommernachts Sports Festival on June 24 in Berlin. That day, he almost caught the the 13-year-old M50 Eurovets record of 51.41 by Britain’s Stephen Peters. I’ll try to learn more about the sensational 51.02.
“Nippy” Nihal Gil is shooting for W100 WR in 100.
Trackos at the AMG are being teased. An email from organizers says: “Please follow the links to the last results of the Athletics competition at the Americas Masters Games 2016 in Vancouver [Racewalk] and [10K] Run.” (But no other events.) Elsewhere, the IAAF Diamond League meet in Paris is the gold standard for how to share results. They had an all-French masters men’s 800 there Saturday, won by 43-year-old Joël Gomez in 1:56.35. Also a masters women’s 200. The results show dates of birth. Hey, Vancouver! Where can we see track and field results? The AMG Twitter feed is no help. (But I found a link to a story about an M100 entrant who is targeting the 100-meter world record in a race with two over-100s entrants.)
Fourteen months ago, I rattled folks with the headline “Future of mastersrankings.com in doubt — with funding an issue.” Now it appears the partial paywall is working. “Contributions since memberships have started have enabled the site to continue by paying most of the recent and some of the deferred operating costs,” says operator John Seto. Of 2,365 registered users, 1,039 have paid at least $25 for annual memberships, he says. But in seeking to improve the site, John has posted a survey. “People do not need to be registered to take the survey or access most of the site,” he says. “Registrations make it easier to submit performances, complete forms like the survey and use other (current and future features). I suspect some people are not getting emails, so those who use the Contact & Report Error forms can now see the response by clicking on a link right below the greeting. Other features will be added and depend on knowing who is using. … The site will improve and evolve based on your feedback.”
Fei-Mei Chou of Sunnyvale, California, has lost her fight with stomach cancer, I’m very sad to report. Her daughter, Ri-Chee, writes that “she fought a valiant battle for 8 months, but sadly, she passed away last night (August 25.). Please share this with the Masters community. That was such an important part of her life.” Indeed. She competed in many masters nationals and worlds, as recently as Lyon and Jacksonville last year in W80. She sprints in this 2015 indoor nationals 60-meter dash, losing only to Irene Obera. I wrote abouther cancer fight in January. I’ll share funeral details and a longer obituary when I get info. Meantime, all our prayers to her friends and family. She’ll be missed.
W75 superstar Christa Bortignon is skipping Vancouver meet after illness, injury.
About 500 people are entered in the five-day track meet at the Americas Masters Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, according to this list.Lots of U.S. stars are in the mix, including Colleen Barney, Joy Upshaw, Kathy Bergen, Don Drummond, Chip Crowl, Tecumseh Peete and James Chinn. Sadly, Canadian star (and local) Christa Bortignon won’t be joining them. Her local paper reported: “Bortignon’s training went off-track after she was hospitalized for pneumonia and then injured her hamstring doing the triple jump at the B.C. Athletics Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Kelowna last month…. However, the West Vancouver resident is back training and hoping to participate in the B.C. Seniors Games in Coquitlam next month.” (See video there too.) Get well soon, Christa! Meanwhile, best of luck to tracksters in BC. The meet begins Saturday (see schedule) with the decathlon and heptathlon.
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
Friday morning I got a Facebook message from a well-known masters track official. Now I think his account was hacked, and it wasn’t him contacting me. “I’m fine doing great and very happy and excited, because yesterday is the happiest day of my life,” said the message, later adding: “Didn’t you heard [sic] about the National Endowment for Humanities assistance program helping some selected names online?” I was told: “Five of my friend [sic] got a grant from them and I also got $50,000 from them, how comes [sic] you haven’t gotten yours yet?” I messaged a Facebook user, and was told: “CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOUR NAME IS STILL AVAILABLE ON OUR WINNER LIST WHICH WE CAN OFFER A GRANT…. ARE YOU READY TO CLAIM YOUR WINNING MONEY FROM US HERE….” That was the final tipoff. I looked up NEH scams and came across this official warning. The FB page I contacted has been deleted. But the scam continues. So change your FB password if you think someone is piggybacking your account.
