Bob Cozens’ M80 bronze in 100.
I get it. USATF’s media operation in Indy had a busy year. Something called Rio. But I’m astounded by the total radio silence on Perth worlds.
Kathy Martin’s W65
world record in the 5000 (beating Briton
Angela Copson’s listed WR of 20:10.09 by 2 seconds)
doesn’t rate a congratulatory tweet?
Irene Obera lowers her own W80 WR in the 80 hurdles and smashes
Flo Meiler’s hep WR from Lyon
by 341 points and no
Facebook post or share? (Check out
Rob Jerome’s amazing feed.) I confess that I’m late to the party, but my hobby isn’t my job. In 2015, USATF did a
few weekly roundups on Lyon worlds. That same year, IAAF Beijing and the IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, got breathless day-by-day news reports. I also get that the mini-kiddies are future Olympians. But USATF derives a lot of membership income from masters LDR and T&F, and we get crumbs in coverage. It’s not that hard to summarize the day’s events. C’mon, Indy. It’s the world championships!
Irene cleared 1.00 in high jump (3-3 1/4) on way to her W80 heptathlon WR. The Hall of Famer may have been making her hep debut. Photo by Rob Jerome.
17 Responses
At mastersrankings.com, John Seto is posting Perth results:
https://www.mastersrankings.com/meetresults/?x9=O16000003
Use the dropdown menus to focus on a given event. This is a great overview of sprints, since all rounds are listed.
I love what Kathy Martin (65) and Sabra Harvey (67) did in the 5000, as they ran 1-2 and were the only ones to break 21 minutes.
Forget about collegiate careers; it was not until many years later that either Kathy or Sabra set foot on a track to run a race. In fact, I think Sabra was around 50 or so before she became a competitive runner.
The youthful Irene Obera is beyond the pale; I love seeing her sprinting young and jumping well at 82. Speaking of the WR in the heptathlon, will Irene be given the mark? Wasn’t her 200 in the heptathlon wind-aided? I don’t know how the rules are worded for such circumstances.
Thank you for the shout out, Ken. If folks don’t have access to my personal Facebook page (where I identify myself as Rob D’Avellar), they can check out my photos and comments on the Facebook group page called “Masters Track and Field” or the Facebook page “USATFMasterstrack” maintained by Sandy Triolo.
“Wasn’t her 200 in the heptathlon wind-aided?” asked Peter. In the heptathlon there are three disciplines that requires wind measuring: hurdles, 200 and long jump. When the wind-readings count up to 6.0 m/sec or lower the heptathlon is OK, when above 6.0 (or: when the mean of the three is > 2.0) it is wind-aided and does not count for records.
My own world record W65 has +0.8, +2.2 and +0.0, which counts up to 3.0, giving a legal heptathlon, although the 200m looks wind aided with +2.2. (In fact it wasn’t wind aided, in the curve we had about -10. But that’s how measurements in 200m go.)
Thank you, Weia. I thought I knew a bit about athletics (track and field), but I guess I didn’t know too much about records in the multi-events. I had thought that if one “apple” was “rotten” (wind > 2.0 meters per second) there could not be a record.
From you, Weia, I see that Irene’s mark should be treated as a record, as the winds were as follows:
80 hurdles 2.0
200 dash 3.5
long jump -3.6
The old rule was that the apple was rotten when one of the wind readings was >4.0. That happened too often, with eventually two head winds for the other disciplines. The new rule exists since 2010.
And yes Irene’s is OK.
r
I just love Christel’s previous comment! You “r” fabulous!
Yes, Irene’s marks are all valid, we already checked that out.
Her performances were superb, she even managed to get a javelin mark – with some worry beforehand..
” I am such a great coach…. smile -”
“Just make sure, the javelin comes point first… stick it in….” easier said than done.
It worked, she was on record pace all the way.
And I tried to follow in a respectable distance, that worked as well.
Congrats again.
We – the 80 plus women – are all collecting medals and the cute stuffed animal (for Gold medal winners)
Mary Harada, Mary Roman, Shirley Diedterich. Jeannie Daprano, Irene Obera and myself.
It does not come easy, even if the numbers are somewhat smaller in some events.
Kathy Bergen was putting on a fabulous”sprint show”
Thanks to Rob for his great pictures.
I second Ken’s concern. I guess we know a USATF summary will be forthcoming at meet’s but a brief highlight every now and then couldnt hurt! As for Irene’s records, we are grateful that the meet organizers (well-aware of the wind rules for multi-events) saw fit to reverse the direction of the long jump so that any records (there was at least one other record possible at that point) might past muster. The wind (and occasional rain) has wreaked havoc for most athletes and unfortunately voided several record performances (including in Irene’s100). Finally, from what I could see, Christel offered valuable guidance to Irene in the javelin where she was a total newbie, even though they were still fighting for the lead at that point. That was sports(wo)manship at its finest IMHO.
In support of Weia’s explanation in comment No.4 – excerpts from official documents and references:
…………
Combined Events Records and Wind
IAAF Competition Rules 2016-2017
Rule 260.18 – World Records (pages 273-274)
For World Records in Combined Events:
The conditions shall have been complied with in each of the individual events, except that, in events where wind velocity is measured, the average velocity (based on the algebraic sum of the wind velocities, as measured for each individual event, divided by the number of such events) shall not exceed plus 2 metres per second.
…
mentioned also in:
http://www.european-athletics.org/mm/Document/Corporate/General/01/27/13/04/RegulationsforAreaRecords-March2012_Neutral.pdf
and http://athletics.com.au/Portals/56/Competition/Documents/2016/IAAF%20Competition%20Rules%20Changes_2015.pdf (page 21)
…….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_assistance
…The exceptions are the combined events like heptathlon and decathlon. Here, the total score may be accepted even though some of the results had a tail wind of more than 2.0 m/s. Here, in events where wind velocity is measured, the average velocity (based on the algebraic sum of the wind velocities, as measured for each individual event, divided by the number of such events) shall not exceed +2.0 m/s (Rule 260.18). Higher average velocity was previously allowed as long as no individual event would exceed +4.0 m/s but the IAAF removed this rule in 2010.
………
http://decathlonusa.typepad.com/files/volume-xxxvnumber-7february.pdf (page 1):
In the old rule a performance was valid in case:
1. the wind assistance was 4.0 mps or less in all the appropriate events
or 2. if the average of the 3 events was 2.0 mps or less.
In the new rule, item 1 does not exist anymore, and a performance now is only legal if the average of the 3 events is 2.0 mps or less.
…
Hope everything is clear.
USATF seems to forget kiddies get introduced to sports via their parents and grandparents.
As much as I hate to face this truth its a reflection on the level of importance USATF assigns to masters.
I want to also credit the WMA Perth media group who are doing an amazing job with videos and an entire YouTube feed! If anyone has photos or stories to share please send them to me on FB or usatfmasterstrack@gmail.com and I’ll do my best to post in a timely manner. Many thanks to Rob for his beautiful photos AND reporting from Perth.
I think that most of us agree that the USATF has little interest in masters track. Most likely, the USATF and their big sponsors view us as a small part of T&F and don’t see the value in putting much effort and money behind us. The question is what can we do to improve the situation? Any ideas?
It’s very clear Rob Jerome D’Avellar is really working hard over there in Perth. It’s a tremendous time and effort commitment to shoot so much and then edit/upload after the fact, day after day. It’s great that usatfmasterstrack is supporting that as well.
I’m amazed at the consistent stream coming back to the facebook pages he refers to in comment #3.
Well done Rob!
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