Record rejection sours Kay Glynn’s breakthrough season
Masters athletes are idiots. So are meet directors. Don’t they know rules are rules? That must be Sandy Pashkin’s thoughts as she stamps REJECTED on every fifth record application she gets. The latest miscarriage of justice involves a W55 pole vault mark by national champion Kay Glynn last June. As detailed in this blog entry, Kay thought she had broken the world outdoor age-group record at a Northern California USATF meet at Los Gatos High School. “We were ALL so excited!” Kay wrote me yesterday of her 3.08 (10-1 1/4) jump (which beat a Phil Raschker WR of 10-0). “I was at the Pacific Association Masters T&F Championships. In September, I was notified by Sandy that there was a mix-up with the meet directors and the meet had not gotten sanctioned.” So guess what? No sanction, no record.
Kay, interviewed last February after she set an indoor record, continued:
Here in Iowa, by mid-September, my outdoor season was over! I was disappointed in the loss of the record and in the three-month delay of notification!
I feel bad not only for me but for all those who were so wonderful to make sure that everything was done correctly — metric measuring before and after, papers filled out by all the necessary officials, witnesses including the announcement for the attempt, a program was sent with the papers, the raw results were sent as well as a computer printout about the meet!
Everyone did everything they could to make sure the record would stand. I don’t know if there were any other repercussions to the other regional champions or not, but unless there’s some helpful discussions concerning these kinds of errors and exceptions in Reno, I don’t have the outdoor record of 3.08. I didn’t even ask if it was a sanctioned meet because it’s a given that a USATF regional meet is always sanctioned.
Adding injury to insult, Kay is now rehabbing after Nov. 10 rotator cuff surgery. She says: “I hope to be back vaulting WR quality, but one never knows. I’m planning to be back to ‘all of it’ when my body has recovered! Being the multi-eventer that I am, I hope to be doing something at indoor nationals!”
So if John Hinton’s record rejection was an outrage, what do we call this? An obscenity?
The really sad thing here is that Kay’s 95 percent torn shoulder might not heal 100 percent, and she may not get a chance to again beat Phil’s listed W55 WR of 3.05.
So another athlete is robbed because of hard-ass application of USATF rules.
Big deal. Anyway, athletes and meet directors are morons, right?
Kay flashes a winner’s smile despite painful shoulder rehab at home in Iowa and loss of a pole vault world record.
10 Responses
On the USATF calendar it is listed as a sanctioned meet……….. so determines what meets are “sanctioned”?????
sorry was so upset about the ruling that I meant…”so WHO determines what meets are “SANCTIONED”???
Bob, go to http://www.usatf.org/associations/ and select an association. You should find sanctioning fees listed and an application for sanctioning. Each association has someone that receives these applications and approves them (if the money and everything on the application is in order.)
Someone once told me, “If you ever break a record, make sure you do it at a national or world championship meet. Otherwise it might not count.” At the time I had no idea what they were talking about. Unfortunately now Kay Glynn and John Hinton do.
Lad Pataki set a world record in the weight pentathlon at the world championships in Brisbane that was not ratified because of a sloping field in the discus. Records aren’t a sure thing even in the big meets.
If you have a shot at a record, do it at Hayward Field. They represent the gold standard in our sport.
The bottom line; it’s only a record if you PAY them money beforehand. I prefer masters meets to be sanctioned for insurance purposes. Can you imagine the liabilty if a serious injury occured ? However; to hold what’s obviously a record HOSTAGE; to the fact someone didn’t obtain insurance coverage for their meet is absurd ! Did Neil Armstrong become the first person to walk on the moon or not ???
As far as I’m concerned; the powers to be are just being “anal.”
Have you looked at what is required to put on a sanctioned meet and to have the necessary qualified officials to ratify a record? I agree that there must be some set of standards for record certification but how to do it without Masters meets suffering from organization and financial woes must be found. Perhaps a simplier system for Masters track to allow easier management of the massive amounts of records possible for all ages and events. We need to encourage more participation and have more local & regional meets and it does not seem that the current system promotes that.
After reading the unfortunate situations for John Hinton and Kay Glynn….From now on, anytime an athlete is attempting a masters record, they should contact the meet directors AND perhaps more importantly Sandy Pashkin to determine if the meet is sanctioned. If so, have Ms Pashkin write a letter or send an email confirming the sanction and also have her state in writing that she will contact you if for some reason the meet becomes unsanctioned. Then SAVE this email. And of course, follow all of the other protocals strictly and precisely. I hope John and Kay can repeat their performances. Best of luck.
I was told that all championships meets of this caliber were sanctioned, so I never asked ahead of time. I’m relatively new in Masters T&F, but if sanctioning is a major issue in rejecting WR applications, maybe when a meet is sanctioned, the meet directors should be given a number that should appear on the entry form—then we would know!
Yes, it is very difficult to get a record certified. When I upped my indoor record (from a month earlier) in Boston, it was simple. All specs such as measurements and paperwork were done almost instantaneously. I even upped the record by making another bar a few minutes later. I just signed the paper, and I was done! Good job, people!—Guess it’s not always that easy.
In CA, I entered the USATF Pacific Association Masters Championship Meet on short notice, but within the deadline, and paid my entry fee. The day before the meet, some vaulters and I had actually found a facility out there on the coast where I flew on a trapeze for the first time. That night, I put ice on the bruises on the back of my knees and on my wrists that I had gotten from a slight error as I was flying to my catcher, but it was all worth it! I said, “If I can’t pole vault tomorrow, it’s o.k.—getting to fly on a trapeze was worth it!
I was not the least bit nervous as I found my body working well when I got to the meet the next morning—I was still “high” from my trapeze experience the day before! I was fairly calm as they announced my record attempt. As they prepared for my attempt, the workers were seen quickly sawing on a brand new piece of mental to attach the metal, metric tape measure which would be necessary for the record. Since making a record was the farthest thing from my mind, I didn’t have the papers with me (this time)! So a vaulting friend of mine ran 2 blocks to a near-by library to get on the computer and get a copy of the record application. As the officials made their measurements, they told me to make sure that I got one of the necessary officials to sign my paper right away because he was going to have to leave the meet early. So I went running out in the parking lot to get the signature as he was leaving the meet. I literally ran from one end of the track to the other to get all the signatures. One official had to call me the next day because he had forgotten his certification no. And, of course, I had to get a program copy, a copy of the meet results and the raw sheet of the pole vaulting competition.
Oh, yeah, while I was gathering all this necessary information, I actually managed to win the long jump, triple jump, and high jump! My vaulting friends were loading up my poles and other track equipment as I completed my “certification job”! Vaulting the record was the easy, fun part! It wasn’t just MY record—it was a group effort! Thanks to all those who helped!
It was reported that the meet was not sanctioned due to an oversight as there were multiple-meet directors who were trying the spread the work this year—each thought the other had done it. In certifying the world record submissions, I do hope that there will be some changes made in the rules, wording, structure, committees—whatever it takes—that will allow master athletes to get the certification they need to become world record holders with a system that is fair to everyone. We put enough effort into training to make a world record—it just shouldn’t be THAT difficult to certify it so that the rest of the world can see that the USA masters are worthy of world records!
Concerning my rotator cuff surgery, the rejected WR, and upcoming involvement in T&F—My spirit is ready to go! As soon as I’ve healed enough to sprint, I’ll be competing in some track and/or field event! As soon as I get the dr.’s o.k. to vault, I’ll be vaulting! This is just a little bump in the road—with many miles to go! Thanks for everyone’s support! I wish you all good health! Kay Glynn
So, the people who bought USATF memberships to compete in this supposedly ‘sanctioned’ meet, they’re going to get refunds, right?
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