Sandy Pashkin says Kalembo, Singh can kiss records bye-bye

Sandy Pashkin ignored this 1988 Olympic ID badge as evidence of Kalembo being 50 in 2010.

M50 quarter-miler Douglas Kalembo, who ran a sub-50 in 2010, and M100 marathon man Fauja Singh won’t see their names in the record books, thanks to USATF masters record chair Sandy Pashkin raising doubts about their ages. Sandy also blocked WR recognition for Olympians with marks superior to listed age-group records, calling certain elite meets into suspicion. That’s what I hear from Andy Hecker, attending the USATF annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, this weekend. Andy writes: “So far my efforts to revive sanity to these old records are going down in flames.  Sandy is vehement that she doesn’t want to go back to old marks.  She has zero faith and [has] questions about the conduct of any meet except the Olympics.  As evidence she gave the failure of Berea to have a flat hammer landing area.” So does that mean that any record set at Berea is suspect? Talk about throwing the records out with the bathwater.

Andy wrote me yesterday:

Sandu Rebenciuc and Allen Johnson should get their old marks approved, but that’s it so far.  I haven’t even gotten Jearl Miles Clark at the 2004 Olympics to be considered, much less Carl Lewis at Van Damme (undependable European meet) or Mt. SAC (how do we know it was conducted properly?).

She was articulate (without ever mentioning his name) that Kalembo’s 2009 passport is the first time of all of his documents that shows a 1960 birthdate.  She found four documents that said 1970.  And she is suggesting we should possibly go further — to disqualify him from competing and maybe even report him to the government for making a false sworn statement.

Not an American record, but discussed, Fauja Singh (nobody was mentioned by name, only by description) also will not get ratified, due to no birth certificate.  It will perpetually be left as pending.  His current M90 record will also be rescinded.  Brian Keaveney is here telling of proper conduct of the 8 performances — but he has no way to verify the birth certificate either and washed his hands of that question. By the way, he mentioned that whole event had that whole entourage apparently flown in by Brooks.

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December 3, 2011

7 Responses

  1. peter taylor - December 3, 2011

    I would like to see a variety of record-breaking performances examined again, but here are just three:

    Joy Upshaw (W50) and Barbara Jordan (W75) both broke the world indoor mark for the 200 dash in a meet we held this past March in Albuquerque called the USATF Masters Indoor Championships. Joy ran 26.24 and Barbara ran 36.80 (both FAT, of course).

    The world marks have been updated four times since Albuquerque, with many records added (including the 200 mark of Bill Collins) from that meet. I would certainly like to see Joy and Barbara get some consideration.

    For our American record in the M35 100 I would like to see Carl Lewis be considered. Right now we have Ruben Whitney with a time of 10.3 seconds (from 1980). That, of course, is a hand time.

    In the old days, few people knew how far off the timers could be when they timed a 100 with a watch. The time of 10.10 FAT by Carl Lewis was achieved at a major European meet (Memorial Van Damme), and the wind was +0.4 mps. Plus, Carl was known to have some speed; I believe he did quite well in the Olympic Games on occasion.

    Well, let me throw in another one. How about the 2:06.37 in the 800 run by Horace Grant at the 2009 Senior Games at Stanford University in California? Let’s consider that one as well (it should be the M55 mark).

    Oh, well, I have some work to do. Don’t have time to spend all day on this.

  2. Old TImer - December 3, 2011

    Isn’t time for Sandy to retire???

  3. Jeff Davison - December 3, 2011

    USATF paperwork prior to the convention:
    http://www.usatf.org/events/2011/AnnualMeeting/library/2011-records-committee-report.pdf

  4. Christel Donley - December 3, 2011

    Pedro,

    B. Jordan and Joy Upshaw’s 200 m records have been accepted.

  5. Ken Stone - December 3, 2011

    Thanks, Jeff! I notice that Gail Devers is getting recognition at last for her 60-meter hurdles records in W35 and W40 in 2003 and 2007. What took so long?

  6. peter taylor - December 3, 2011

    Thanks, Christel. Looks like they have been accepted as American marks — I assume that is what you meant. However, the times of Joy U. and Barbara J. are both superior to the listed world marks; any word on why they were never accepted as new world records?

    Pedro

  7. Jeff Davison - December 3, 2011

    Hopefully the five new Shuttle Hurdle Relay marks (Five Masters American Records = Twenty Athletes) will be posted on the USATF website later this year. Sources state it may include a note “new event.”

    Thank you to all of those involved that got this
    accomplished at the USATF Convention.

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