Gideon Ariel, a two-time Olympian for Israel (1960 and 1964), is better-known as a sports scientist who helped Mac Wilkins (1976 Olympic discus champion, 1984 silver) and Al Oerter in his 40s. Now he’s in desperate need of help himself. He must get a new kidney. Mac, now coaching at the Olympic Training Center near San Diego, says via email: “My dear friend of 35 years now has end-stage kidney disease and desperately needs a life-saving donor kidney, blood type O. He is working with Renewal, a remarkable nonprofit organization. They have found an email campaign to be an effective technique and it’s best to cast as wide a net as possible. Therefore, I am sending each of you this message in the hope that you may know of someone who is able and willing to make the incredible gift of donating a kidney in order to save a life.” Gideon was on David Letterman many years ago.

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The Masters T&F Committee, meeting at the USATF annual shindig in Houston, voted Friday morning to award the 2018 masters indoor national championships to Landover, Maryland. This will be the third Landover nationals, following the fiasco of 2009 (when results were botched and even made up at several points) and 2013 (when everything was fixed). The vote was something like 41-22, I’m told. The 2015 site, JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was the loser. The meet will be at the Wayne K. Curry Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex. I don’t know why Landover won, but maybe delegates will post their thoughts here. In any case, here are some images of the Landover track.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed for M75 thrower Bruce Clarke of New Zealand, who on Friday was hit by a shot during warmups for the North Island Masters Athletics Championships in Auckland. “It is understood he was in a critical condition after the accident and he is still in hospital in Auckland,” the local paper said Tuesday. Kiwivets president Andrew Stark was quoted as saying: “They had an ambulance on site with at least two paramedics.” Andrew said this was the first time he’d experienced such an accident, but “everything has been handed to the right people and there’s a process that they will go through.” Bruce’s family sells Christmas trees, but was not ready to speak about the accident, the paper said. Anyone know his current condition? All the best to Bruce and his family!

Last winter and spring, when M40 Bernard “Kip” Lagat was crushing mile and other records, I thought: What a shame he won’t win masters end-of-year awards. I thought wrong. Tuesday in Houston, site of the USATF annual meeting, Kip was named Masters Athlete of the Year. Turns out the Masters T&F Committee and Masters LDR Committee had a powwow and decided to bypass Anselm LeBourne, Kathy Bergen and Irene Obera as top master. The MT&F Committee has a rule: Play in our pen to be eligible for our honors. Not so for MLDR. That panel’s president, Don Lein, wrote me: “Anyone who is a Master and runs in LDR events is eligible. … Lagat was chosen by the MLDR Executive Committee in October, as I recall unanimously. We have no exclusions nor are we parochial. When measured by performance data (age-graded percentage, records, etc.), he had the best year of any American Master who participated in Masters LDR events.”

Here’s the formal announcement:

HOUSTON — USA Track & Field will recognize high school phenom Candace Hill as Youth Athlete of the Year and Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat as Masters Athlete of the Year at the Jesse Owens Awards, held Saturday, Dec. 5 in conjunction with the USATF Annual Meeting.

Hill (Conyers, Georgia) set two World Youth Records (WYRs) in 2015. She ran an astounding 10.98 in the 100 meters on June 20 at the Brooks Invitational in Shoreline, Washington, and she ran 22.43 in the 200m as a member of Team USA at IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia.

Hill claimed the sprint double at World Youth Championships, setting meet records in both events in Cali. She was named Gatorade National Track & Field Athlete of the Year and went on to become the only high school sophomore and only female non-senior to win Gatorade National Athlete of the Year.

Lagat (Tucson, Arizona), an M40-44 athlete, set six masters world records indoors in 2015, starting with his 3:54.91 Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games. He finished the 3,000m in 7:48.33 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Feb. 7, lowering that to 7:37.71 at the 7th Annual Metz Moselle Athlélor Indoor in Metz, France, on Feb. 25. His indoor record repertoire also includes a 8:17.05 two-mile at the Sainsbury’s Indoor GP at Birmingham, England, on Feb. 21.

On the roads, he set a new masters world record in the 10 km on May 10, finishing the Great Manchester Run in England in 27:48 to tie the American open record.

Outdoors, Lagat set World Masters records on the track, finishing the 1,500m at Birmingham British Athletics Grand Prix in 3:41.87 and the 5,000m at Prefontaine in 13:14.97.

The red carpet for USATF’s Jesse Owens Awards begins at 6:30 p.m. CST at the Hyatt

After nationals and maybe the Hayward Masters Classic, arguably the best masters meet in the country is the venerable Bob Boal event in North Carolina, aka the USATF Southeastern Masters Regional Championships. But many were dismayed a couple weeks ago to learn the meet has been canceled for 2016. No reason was given publicly until I started making inquiries. Finally, an explanation emerged. Bob was a David Pain disciple who went to the 1969 masters nationals in San Diego and started his own meet at North Carolina State University in 1971. The 2015 meet was the 45th edition. Don Lein, president of the Southeastern U.S. Masters Board of Directors, shared the reasons with me as well.

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World champion and Hall of Famer Myrle Mensey is throwing herself into her Throwing and Growing Foundation event — her annual December camp and competition in St. Louis. She writes of the Dec. 28-29 event: “My camp is for females only — youth, open and masters. Events are shot, weight and superweight for masters.  Masters women are welcome to the competition only, but the camp is going to be great with some outstanding coaches. Last year, we had five masters attend and 34 girls.  This is a USATF-sanctioned competition. Attached is the flier and registration information is also on our website throwingandgrowing.org.”  

Robert Thomas, the M45 quarter-miler out of Indiana, was quick to reply to a query Sunday. He writes that USATF masters have only had two bidders for 2018 indoor nationals — Winston Salem and Landover. But “no outdoor bidders this year,” he says. “So we will bid 2018 and 2019 outdoors next year in Orlando” at the USATF annual meeting. “I had Lexington, Kentucky, VERY interested in bidding for outdoor, but they had no facility in town suitable to accommodate our event.” Well, bummer. The annual meeting, this year in Houston, might consider new ways of recruiting bidders. How about preparing a pitch that any masters chair at any association can make to his colleagues? One- or no-bidder years are getting old.

Anthony Whiteman, the first outdoor sub-4 miler over 40, is profiled nicely in Athletics Weekly. He reveals his training habits and notes that he rarely runs roads slower than 6-minute-mile pace. Ruth Jones quotes Anthony: “I progress to the M45 age category in November next year. That’s my focus. I know my body better now. I don’t feel pressure to train if I don’t feel up to it for any reason. I certainly don’t beat myself up.” His all-time best at 1500 is 3:32.34, which makes him sixth-fastest in UK history. “I retired in 2004. I had absolutely no plans to return to running. But over the years, my overall fitness and body shape didn’t change much, so when I was presented with the challenge of a five-mile race in 2009 I accepted. I found I got fit quickly and won the race [the Owston Ferry 5, where he ran 25:40 as an M35] in a reasonable time.” Happy belated 44th birthday, Tony!

Hey, we’ll take it. Erin Taylor-Talcott doesn’t consider herself a masters walker. But she’s of the age. In the wake of her WR-eligible 50K walk Sunday near San Diego (which I wrote about), Erin has been named USATF Athlete of the Week. “Talcott (Oswego, New York), a long-time advocate for allowing women to compete at the traditionally male 50 km distance, completed the 31 miles in 5:03:34 at 9:47 pace in scorching 90-degree conditions to finish first among women and eighth overall,” USATF reports. Her mark is being submitted to IAAF for a newly eligible WR. Hope WMA notes the time as well.

Remember my getting hot and bothered by the Japanese gent claiming an M105 world record in the 100? One problem is our governing bodies didn’t get around to recognizing Stanislaw Kowalski as the real WR man. Now they have. Well, at least the Eurovets. Our Polish correspondendent Janusz Nath shares a note from Wacław Krankowski, prez of Polish vets. Wacław writes, replying to my email of Sept. 23 about Stan’s 100 at June’s Polish Championships in Torun: “I’d like to inform that Mr Stanislaw ran 100 meters. The result of which has been was better than the World Record. The organizers did not submit it to the Guinness Book of Records, but in accordance with applicable EMA and WMA procedures, the needed files and protocol was sent to EMA Board. Yesterday we received from the EMA certificate which confirms that Stanislaw Kowalski set the new World Record. This result is not yet on the official website of World Records WMA, because so far the WMA authorities have not add to tables category M 105.” (Stan’s M105 discus record also is on the Eurovets books.)

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