Sprinters, vaulters featured in our Club West gallery
Back from Riccione worlds with medals galore, perhaps a dozen world travelers competed at the 33rd annual Club West masters meet Saturday at UC Santa Barbara, an hour north of Los Angeles. See some 70 photos here. Nadine O’Connor tried twice to break Edith Graff’s W65 world record in the 80-meter hurdles of 14.24, but was foiled by the wind. On her first try, Nadine ran 13.89 with an illegal aiding wind of 2.3 or 2.4 mps (about 5 mph). Then with the wind changing direction, Andy Hecker and Jeff Davison volunteered to run with Nadine. This time, she ran into a stiff breeze, and fell short with a time of 14.48 (I think).
Her next attempt will be October 21 in Long Beach, California. She (and Del Mar partner Bud Held) also vaulted. I gave them a separate gallery.
Another record-seeker was Joy Upshaw-Margerum, big sister of Olympic long jumper Grace Upshaw. Joy was going after Phil Raschker’s American W45 record of 5.36 (17-7) in the long jump. Joy managed to reach 5.30 (17-4 3/4).
I also enjoyed snapping pictures of an M45 vaulter from Ventura via the Ukraine. As an open athlete, Victor Berezovskiy jumped 17 feet and scored 7649 points in the decathlon. (He also high jumped 2.12, or 6-11 1/2.) He competed in the USA vs. USSR meet in Russia in 1978, and knew a budding young vaulter named Sergei Bubka. Victor, now a U.S. citizen, turns 48 in November.
M50 world 100-meter champion Marty Krulee ran the 50 and 100 at this meet, gutting it out against sprinters 10 years younger.
Nice touch at this meet was the informed announcing by local runner Des O’Neill, a longtime leader of the Santa Barbara Athletic Association.
As always, try the “view slideshow” setting on the Gallery, and set the size to “No Limit.”
Complete results aren’t online yet. I’ll share the link when I get it.
One Response
Thank you for the nice photos, Ken.It was good to see you and you lovely wife Chris. Also thrilled to say hello to Tom Fahey and many other good ahtletes and nice people such as Larry Barnum and lovely wife, Marty Krulee, Arnie Gaynor and wife. And my buddy Lance Pierce and wife. And the sweet organizers of my favorite track meet, Beverly Lewis Larry, etc. And thank you to all the helpful officials and volunteers. It was a beautiful day and I felt very priviliged to be part of it.
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