Thrower’s U.S. record noted by local paper, not USATF
Brian Sumpter of the Lake County Record-Bee south of Sacramento knows something that USATF doesn’t — that local thrower Mike Curry tied a national record a couple weekends ago. Brian’s story reports: “Competing in the age 40-44 division of the ultraweight pentathlon, Curry threw the 56-pound weight (also known as the superweight) 8.86 meters (29-1), tying the national record he set earlier this season. The ultraweight pentathlon includes weight throws of 35, 56, 100, 200 and 300 pounds.” Meanwhile, results of the meet Sept. 6 at West Seattle Stadium in Seattle are still AWOL. That’s 13 days and counting. Sheesh. But you know me. I always give Indy a break. I won’t complain until it’s been a month. Then I’ll say: “Pretty please, with a cherry on top?”
Anyway, here’s the story on Marvelous Mike:
Curry equals national record in 56-pound weight throw
By Brian Sumpter — Record-Bee sports editor
Article Last Updated: 09/17/2008 10:59:26 PM PDT
SEATTLE — Former Clear Lake High School star Mike Curry of Elk Grove tied his own national record in the 56-pound weight throw during the 2008 USA Masters Weight and Superweight Championships on Sept. 5 at West Seattle Stadium in Seattle.
Competing in the age 40-44 division of the ultraweight pentathlon, Curry threw the 56-pound weight (also known as the superweight) 8.86 meters, tying the national record he set earlier this season. The ultraweight pentathlon includes weight throws of 35, 56, 100, 200 and 300 pounds.
Curry wasn’t planning on participating in the ultraweight pentathlon after winning the single-event 56-pound throw earlier in the competition. His toss of 8.66 meters beat out his primary rival, David Bickel, who was second with 8.56 meters.
“We’re now recognized as being the new great rivalry in Masters track and field,” Curry said of his rivalry with Bickel in both the 35- and 56-pound weight throws. “I wasn’t going to compete in the pentathlon after beating him in the superweight throw, but when I saw that he had signed up for the pentathlon, there was no way I wasn’t going to,” Curry said.
Curry pulled out of the pentathlon after his throw in the 56-pound weight topped the field. He said he wanted no part of the 100-, 200- and 300-pound weight throws. “I played around a little bit with the 100-pound weight,” Curry said. “That was enough.”
In the single-event 35-pound weight throw, Bickel bested Curry with a national-record toss of 14.18 meters. Curry almost matched him, clearing 14.17 meters with his final throw.
“That was one hell of a competition,” Curry said. “I came up one centimeter short.”
The USA Masters Weight and Superweight Championships represented the last big competition for Curry this season.
“Everyone is kind of tired by this point,” Curry said. “I’m going to take two weeks off and the return in October with some light stuff,” he added of his future workout schedule. “It’s been a good year.”
4 Responses
Great throw, but he needs to start training hard if he has any hopes of threatening the records for 50-54 and 55-59 with that same weight. He’s about 2.5 meters short of those.
So there’s a story for you Ken – How does a guy 15 years older throw a 56 lb weight 30% farther.
Let me clarify some mis-information which sometimes happens with the press.
Unfortunately Mike Curry didn’t tie his pending record of 8.86. His mark was 8.78 in our meet. This will be submitted for a record anyhow in case the 8.86 mark for some reason doen’t get approved. Record breaking proformances should all be submitted even though the person or someone else might have broken the record during the year.
We will also submit Mikes’s 14.17 mark in the 35lb. along with David Bickell’s 14.18. They both broke the record and deserve recognition.
Don’t blame Indy. Blame the meet director, George Mathews. The record submission for a national championship has to go from the meet director to records chair who posts the pending records. She does a great job no matter what you say Ken. You will not find a better person for 10 times the money ($3,000). Good volunteers are hard to come by. Indy isn’t even involved.
We are all volunteers who hopedully have a life and try to do the best we can. I have been working on getting the fix for the ultrweight tables. Have men and should have women shortly.
Thanks for patience.
And so it goes.
George
Thanks for fessing up, George.
But this is a textbook example of what happens when official results aren’t posted expeditiously — a small newspaper gets the facts wrong, and the error spreads and multiplies online!
Had official results been posted before I saw the article (noted above), I would have laughed off the screw-up and probably ignored it.
But when your ONLY source for masters results is a paper quoting an athlete, you go with what U got!
Please share results of the men’s section ASAP.
If they’d let athletes throw the 35 and 56 pound weights one-handed like in the Highland Games, you’d see some real records….
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