Ten days ago, WMA updated its world record lists. Not long after, the website was rejiggered. For many years, the records were posted as HTML files (regular web pages). But now they’re PDFs. (See outdoor men’s records. and see outdoor women’s records.) No big deal, except it takes longer to view this stuff. I still can’t cotton mistakes, omissions and other boogers. An example in the men’s list: All of the Don Pellmann M100 records listed are shown as having been set in Santa Clara. Oh, c’mon. Don lives in Santa Clara but set the marks in San Diego — which every tabloid site in UK knows. I also counted the WRs set in Lyon. I came up with 41. But WMA announced that 43 WRs were set at worlds. So which two are missing? Last week, I wrote to Sandy Pashkin, the WMA records czar, and she hasn’t responded. Or fixed the mistakes. Don is credited with three M100 WRs, but not for 100 and high jump. Why? Nobody is talking. Until this is fixed, media outlets will be confused and cite the wrong data.

Jean-Luc Duez of France won M50 gold at Lyon and was credited with a decathlon WR even though he had a higher score earlier. Now we learn, via the Eurovets top 10 site, that Jean-Luc (now 52!) has beaten his mark again, scoring a massive 8106 on Oct. 10 in Tournefeuille, France. Any of his marks would be at or near world-class, including a 100 in 11.96, long jump of 6.26 (20-6 1/2), high jump of 1.74 (5-8 1/2), 400 in 54.88, 100 hurdles in 14.94 and 1500 in 5:05.88. I hope to learn more about him soon.

GIGO got Brian Coushay. After learning that the M50 multi-eventer had accepted a two-year suspension for testing positive for banned stuff at Jacksonville nationals, I wrote him. He replied Saturday with an honest and plausible account. He said he took Adderall and didn’t find it on USADA’s banned list. (It’s on the WADA list.) But Brian’s experience is instructive. Do a better search. I did two. I typed in Google: Is Adderall on banned doping list? and What is in Adderall? Those would have raised sufficient alarms, since both mention amphetamines. Sorry that Brian didn’t take the extra step. I’m grateful for his sharing. We all need to learn from this.

Read the rest of this post »

USADA on Friday released this shocking news. I’ll reach out to “Coush” for his side of the story. “Colorado Springs, Colo. (October 23, 2015) – USADA announced today that Brian Coushay, of Beaverton, Ore., an athlete in the sport of track & field, has tested positive for a prohibited substance and accepted a two-year suspension for his doping offense. Coushay, 51, tested positive for Amphetamine as the result of an in-competition urine sample collected on July 25, 2015 at the National Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Jacksonville, Fla. Amphetamine is a substance in the class of Stimulants prohibited under the USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing and International Association of Athletics Federations (“IAAF”) Anti‐Doping Rules, both of which have adopted the World Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List.” Brian is the listed M50 American record-holder in the decathlon, from 2014. At Jax nationals, he did just two events (long jump and discus) and didn’t medal. Smells like targeted testing, not “random.”

Read the rest of this post »

The Brits have a masters magazine that could one day become a “full online news service,” according to a help-wanted ad this week. “You obviously have a passion for masters athletics, but do you also have a flare for writing; an eye for copy layout and IT skills? Do you have networking and communications skills to expand the magazine into a full online news service for masters athletics in the UK, covering the website and social media?” writes BMAF Secretary Bridget Cushen “If so, an exciting opportunity has arisen for you to join a committed team who run the most successful section of British athletics. … You will receive an annual Honorarium of £2,200.” A friend sent me the news, thinking I might be interested. But no. I don’t relish commuting to London from San Diego. (And I doubt telecommuting is an option.) Besides, I don’t know the UK turf. And I’d have to learn a second language.

The trailer is out for “Race,” the latest movie on wish-he-were M100 Jesse Owens. It appears to pull no punches. (I can’t wait to see how it depicts the 220-yard low hurdles world record of 1935.) And as one commenter said: “One of the coolest things about the Jesse Owens story is that Hitler had hired someone to make a movie of the Olympic Games, likely intended for propaganda, and Jesse Owens ended up having a starring role in it, just because he was so awesome that they couldn’t leave him out.” It’s hard to top “Chariots of Fire” and “Running Brave,” some of the many great T&F flicks. But I hope this one — due out in February 2016 — jump-starts interest in our sport and even gets older folks nostalgic and wanting to jump back in the game.

Guillermo Guzmán Magaña, president of Mexican masters track, says M45 sprinter Marco Antonio Franco Díaz is part of a cancer. Marco counterfeits his times and makes money off his celebrity, the prez says. His allegations are in a letter of Sept. 21, 2014, banning Marco for 18 months. But Marco lives in California, and he later became aware that the ban was extended to a lifetime suspension. On Tuesday, in response to inquiries, Marco denied the accusations and said the root of the dispute is envy by Mexican track officials and his not taking part in Mexican meets or competing for Mexico internationally. Marco says he wrote WMA to give his opinion but got no reply. When Marco contacted the president of Athletics Mexico, he says the response was: “We do not decide by the masters; that’s their business.” Marco says he received no notice of the lifetime ban. “What are the reasons?” he says. “I think the WMA should look deeper into this.” I’m reproducing the Spanish letter to Marco and his response to me. Plus Google translations. Forgive the funkiness.

Read the rest of this post »

Anselm LeBourne has been named USATF Male Masters T&F Athlete of 2015, and Kathy Bergen and Irene Obera will share female honors after a year in which each set a half-dozen world records and won gold at Lyon. The USATF Masters Awards Committee informed them over the weekend, and reactions are coming in. For M55 middle-distancer Anselm, it’s his first time. “Other than being selected to the USATF [Masters] Hall of Fame, this is the pinnacle of accomplishments in USA masters track and field,” he told me Monday. “There is no higher honor than this. I have won the age group Athlete of the Year about 4 times but never the overall athlete of the year. What this mean to me is that the Masters Awards committee appreciated my accomplishments and have rewarded me. I appreciate that.”

Read the rest of this post »

German media are reporting that former world-class triple jumper Charles Friedek has won a legal judgment against the German Athletics Federation worth possibly $150,000. Charles sued because he said he should have been on the 2008 Beijing Olympic team. He’s now 44, and masters blogger Alfred Hermes wrote Charles an open letter, urging his return to competition: “You could enrich the M45 in the coming year. The possible damages of more than 100 thousand euros would indeed hardly allow you to sit down to rest, but it would easily be enough to finance travel to championships. As a prominent active, you could contribute to the Masters Sport to gain recognition and the triple jump on zuwerten. Maybe you can even do it for “World Best Masters” and will receive an invitation from the IAAF Gala in Monaco.”

Read the rest of this post »

Growing Bolder has a great video on M55 long jumper Richard Konsens, “who thought his track and field days were over when it was time to graduate into the ‘real world.’ In fact, on the day of his graduation from Dartmouth College, the Ivy League long-jumping champion went to the pits to take his last jump in his cap and gown. Or so he thought.” Thus began a recounting of his comeback, which eventually led to Lyon this summer and a 10th-place finish (5.05 in prelims, or 16-6 3/4). His college best was 7.37 meters (24-2.25). He won state at 23-6.25. Notable in his LJ resurrection was how careful he was. He got coaching help and apparently avoided injury after being out of the game three decades — as befits an orthopedic surgeon. Nice work, Doc! Stay healthy.

Read the rest of this post »