Ed flows at 2007 Orono masters nationals.
Two weeks ago, M85 distance god
Ed Whitlock ran a world-record 5000 meters in 24:03.99 at the
Ontario Masters Championships but missed the 1500 WR a few hours later by less than a second. Over the weekend at Canadian nationals
(see results), Ed got it easily. He ran the metric mile in a stunning 6:38.23 (age-graded at 3:23.94, or 101.01 percent), beating the listed WR of 6:51.32 by
Yoshimitsu Miyauchi in 2009. In the track 10K Friday morning, Ed ran 51:07.53 (age-graded 27:25.74) to lower German
Max Raschke’s listed WR of 52:50.80 by a crazy 1 minute, 43 seconds. In a rarity, Marathon Ed lost a race — over 800 meters. But don’t feel bad, since it was
Earl Fee winning Sunday afternoon 3:21.36 to 3:27.19. (Earl holds the WR at 3:09.10.) Going into this season, Ed had 17 world track records. He also holds a slew of road WRs.
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August 15, 2016
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Masters mom gives Olympic hep champ a smooch.
At 2015 Lyon worlds,
Danièle Denisty of Belgium was a DNF in the W45 heptathlon, doing the Day 1 events but not Day 2. Whatever disappointment she felt was nothing compared to the joy of watching her daughter win gold in the same event – at the Rio Olympic Games. As
IAAF noted: Nafissathou Thiam’s mother “is an accomplished heptathlete and competes internationally in the event at masters level. She has claimed European titles both indoors and outdoors in her age group, and has set multiple Belgian records.” Danièle even rated a mention as a
masters standout in the old mastersathhletics.net site. On a Belgian site,
Danièle, now 50, said she had tears in her eyes, watching her 21-year-old daughter finish the 800. “It’s a dream … Even in my dreams, I dared not expect that,” Danièle told channel VTM. “I’m so happy. I guess Nafi will be many now taken, it will not be my little chick, I’m going to share a little … But I’m so happy. The 800 meters was super nice.” Thanks to
Peter Van Aken for bringing this item to my attention.
August 14, 2016
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The 300th issue of National Masters News — August 2003.
Some good news and great news: Saturday I added 22 issues of National Masters News to
mastershistory.org — our USATF-subsidized online museum. The issues are from 2003 and 2004 — all except the December editions. (I have them somewhere.) So now we have 338 issues of NMN online from 1977 to 2006. Also coming soon: thousands of original photos from NMN. They’ve been scanned as PDFs, many with the original caption information attached. The idea is to make them searchable. (This means Google will list them.) I’m uploading the images soon to a photo archiving service attached to the history site, and you’ll be able to download the images to your desktop or mobile device. A gallery has been a longtime dream of the USATF Masters Historical Archive Committee led by
Jeff Davison. Click photo below to see example of a month’s worth from August 1992.
Walt Butler leads a race in one of the photo PDFs coming to mastershistory.org
August 13, 2016
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Myrle and her medals.
W65 thrower
Myrle Mensey, with the good fortune of competing the week before Olympic track begins (when U.S. elite track is on hiatus), was named USATF Athlete of the Week on Thursday.
USATF’s news release had errors, but got the major stuff right. USATF wrote: “The legendary Myrle Mensey (St. Louis, Missouri) threw the meet to new heights and set two records this past weekend at the USATF Masters Throws Championships. She improved her personal record of 5,822 in the ultra pentathlon and shattered the American record by a whopping 1,790 points. The Masters Throws Championships brought forth many records and spectacular competition and was held in Lisle, Illinois at Benedictine University. The events ranged from men and women aged 30 to 89 years old. Mensey had the unique honor to compete with her coach Jessica Becker and chiropractor at the meet, who encouraged her to perform her best. “I knew what I needed to break the record and I knew that I could break the ultra pentathlon.”
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August 12, 2016
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Liz Palmer, shown at 2015 Pasadena Senior Games, triggered latest drugs debate.
My hurdler friend
Bill Pontius is the latest to ask:
Why do you allow anonymous comments? I’m well aware of
the arguments for and against, having dealt with truly vicious trolls at
SignOnSanDiego.com for seven years (the website of The San Diego Union-Tribune). But this blog is less prone to really ugly comments. I start with the assumption that we’re all adults and can take grown-up debate. I reserve the right to zap comments and ban individual commenters (and I have). But the vast majority of fake-namers contribute to the conversation (usually about doping). Some pseudonyms belong to well-known masters officials and athletes, and I don’t want to lose their wisdom. (I see their underlying email addresses.)
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August 11, 2016
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Andy hurdles early in his masters career.
of Ventura, California, has a background in broadcasting and track — as a masters athlete and USATF official who has worked for the IAAF as a camera guy. So starting a podcast on track and field seems a natural next step. His first dozen episodes are previews of the Rio track meet. He’s done men’s 400, 10,000, discus, vault and long jump and women’s steeple, triple jump, shot and hep. But he also has one titled “Why was Russia banned from the track and field athletics events at the 2016 Olympics in Rio?”
See all his offerings. He’ll eventually cover other issues, since the podcast is titled Guide to Life as We Know It. Pretty ambitious, and check out his sponsor (mentioned in each podcast) for discounts.
August 10, 2016
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Henry Ellard does his thing with Rams back when.
was a pretty fair football player — playing an exceptional 16 years in the NFL, gaining 15,000 all-purpose yards and scoring as many as 10 TDs one year as a receiver for the Rams. He also excelled in track — in high school and college. He tells me his PRs are 6-8 in high jump (high school 1978/79); 25-5 in the long jump (Fresno State 1982) and 56-6 in the triple jump (1983). After he set an
M55 American record in the TJ a week and a half ago, I sent him some questions, and he graciously responded from home in San Antonio, Texas.
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August 9, 2016
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Neni (say: Knee-Knee) Lewis, shown in 2010, is a former USATF Masters Athlete of the Year.
shares other highlights from the weekend’s USATF National Masters Throw Championships in Illinois. In individual events, he writes of records: “W85 –
Gloria Krug hammer 16.62m, though she’s done better earlier in the season; best is 19.21 at the East Region meet in June. W85 – Gloria Krug superweight 5.83m. W75 –
JoAnne Marriott weight throw 11.47m. W55 –
Neni Lewis weight throw 14.97m, though she’s threw farther in Michigan – 15.50m. W55 – Neni Lewis superweight 10.36m, though she threw 10.78m at the East Region meet in June.” On the throws pentathlon records, Jerry writes: “W85 – Gloria Krug 3808 points breaking
Betty Jarvis’ record of 2606. W65 –
Myrle Mensey 4451 points breaking her own record (note that
Mary Hartzler also broke the old record in second place!).”
Here are results.
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August 8, 2016
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Myrle went smiling into her USADA drug test .
USATF masters championships were held over the weekend in Illinois and Washington state, with results pending for the
Masters Throws Championships at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois.
Myrle Mensey added to her legend by improving her own record in one event and destroying another. She writes: “Set a new American record today in the Ultra pentathlon breaking the old record (was not mine) by 1790 points. Old record 4032. My points today 5822. I am too excited. Event included throwing the 12lb, 20lb, 25lb, 35lb, 44lb weights. Medals and prize money. My coach
Jessica R. Becker was also here competing. It was so great to have her here for another competition…. What a great weekend — a world record in the throws pentathlon yesterday with a score 4780 breaking my own World record of 4754.” The
USATF Combined Events National Championships were held at King’s High School in Shoreline, Washington. Best dec score was 7116 by M60
Doug Osland. Two women did the dec as well — W60
Nola Hendrie and W65
Mary Trotto. Pole vault maven and USATF muckraker
Becca Gillespy Peter was meet director. Congrats to all.
Here are results.
August 7, 2016
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Rex Harvey takes on doping issue.
During research for my
MyNewsLA.com story on
Liz Palmer, I wrote to
Rex Harvey and
Robert Thomas — the announced candidates to replace
Gary Snyder as national masters T&F chair. Robert hasn’t responded, but Rex sent me a long note Friday. He’s in the tough-love camp, but also told me: “I would be more favorable to an age limit for doping testing. Something like 80, or whatever, after the matter is studied.” He accepts Liz’s explanation for how she tested positive (via a contaminated supplement). I appreciate his thoughts, which might not appeal to everyone. I’ll post Robert’s reply if/when it comes.
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August 6, 2016
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