Great news out of the Houston annual meeting: “A relatively small amount of money has been set aside to support potential [masters] medal winners who would not otherwise be able to afford to go to Perth,” writes throws coordinator Jerry Bookin-Weiner. “There will be an application and selection process with final decisions made by the MTF chair, the team manager and [possibly] affirmed by the MTF officers. The money is to be equally split between males and females with a total of $5,000 available.” That’s been a goal for decades — moving us closer to the respect our elites deserve. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out at 2016 worlds. But it’s a start. Stay tuned as details are shared on how to apply. USATF national masters Treasurer Carroll DeWeese also provided a budget document, which shows Marketing going from $8,000 to $10,000 and Media from $12,000 to $15,000. It will be interesting to watch these as well — and make sure we’re getting the best bang for the buck.

Also, Carroll and Jerry responded to my queries on regional drug-testing.

Carroll DeWeese writes:

Not all regions will be drug tested in 2016, but all are subject to drug testing. Funds are available to test both major MTF National Championships and a minimum of one region, along with one other MTF National Championship or region.

By MTF policy, costs for drug testing and numbers of tests are only available on a need to know basis – on the MTF Executive Committee, only Steve Cohen and myself are aware of the costs and actual testing numbers.

Contracts are made between the MTF Drug Committee through USATF National Office with USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) specifying which competitions and the number and types of tests. At any meet being tested, all athletes are subject to testing, not just those setting records or those getting into finals.

Using MTF Guidelines, USATF makes all judgements of which athletes are tested and they handle all the follow-up. USADA decides who gets tested. No one within USATF or MTF is aware of a positive test result until USADA makes the results known publicly. USATF and MTF are “hands-off” in the process.

Any athlete with a legitimate use of a prohibited drug needs to get a TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) from USADA and have it with them at the time of their being tested. Any athlete going to meets outside the USA where testing is being done (e.g. WMA World Championships) needs to also have a TUE issued by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency).

The reason is that USADA will provide TUEs for some drugs that WADA may not provide a TUE and vice versa. With reasonable proof of real need, both USADA and WADA will issue TUEs for Masters athletes, but without a TUE a tested athlete could end up being sanctioned in various ways, including but not limited to being banned from competition for life.

MTF started drug testing after receiving much criticism from masters athletes and federations from other countries that USA athletes were not clean. In the first couple of years of testing a number of USA masters athletes had positive tests.

In the last few years, only a few people have had positive tests. Including MTF Regions in testing is extending the drug testing net to verify that athletes who may not make it to MTF National Championships are also clean. MTF is in process of becoming the gold standard around the world in insuring that its athletes are competing drug free at all levels of its competitions.

USATF MTF is now the number one track and field masters team in the world. MTF is in process of becoming recognized as the gold standard and number one for drug testing and clean performances among world masters athletics.

Jerry Bookin-Weiner writes:

I can’t really answer your questions about testing at regional meets, nor, I believe, will anyone else since either there are no answers at this point or (in some cases) the information is never made public or even shared with anyone other than the head of the masters anti-doping committee (even Gary is not informed, just as with the elites – it’s between USADA and one person within USATF).

One thing I can say is that when we approved testing several years ago testing at any sanctioned meet was in the deal, so no approval was up in Houston.

The main and most important vote in Houston was the approval of the amendments to the USATF by-laws that will now have members of the Board of Directors selected by the constituency groups rather than going through the convoluted process that has been in place for the past several years. It means that MTF and Associations (the “General Competition Division”) will jointly elect their member of the BOD when William Shelton’s term expires in 2018.

The budget continues to grow; if memory serves when everything is taken into account it’s now over $200k.

Uniforms for Perth will consist of either a top and shorts or a one-piece racing suit (athlete’s choice). There will also be substantial discounts on other items.

A relatively small amount of money has been set aside to support potential medal winners who would not otherwise be able to afford to go to Perth. There will be an application and selection process with final decisions made by the MTF Chair, the Team Manager, and affirmed by the MTF officers (I could be off on the last bit of that). The $ is to be equally split between males and females with a total of $5k available.

Regarding records, there was a move to start a process that will change the rulebook next year so that USATF membership will be required for ratification of an American record (it is not currently but is required for WR recognition as a WR must be set by someone who is a member of the national affiliate, in this case USATF, in their home country so we could have an AR that is superior to a WR).

The essential impetus for this was that WRs set at the National Senior Games were not recognized as WRs in some cases because the athlete was not a USATF member.

There evidently was also discussion in the overall Records Committee about ratification taking place more often than the current once a year process; that was not, so far as I know, resolved and in any case couldn’t be put into the Rules this year since it wasn’t a “Rules year.”

After a drawn out and contentious process Latashia Key was re-elected as the Active Athletes Chair.