USATF posts hometown roster of Lahti world meet entrants

USATF today posted the roster of Americans entered in next week’s World Masters Athletics Championships in Lahti, Finland. Click here for the list, which includes hometowns. The list doesn’t reflect recent scratches, such as Nolan Shaheed, Larry Barnum and Kevin Forde. But it’s interesting to study. For example, at least six couples are entered — the Backlunds of Oregon, the Dapranos of Georgia, the Donleys of Colorado, the Elkinses of Arizona, the Frables of Utah and the Moremens of California. And I’m thrilled to note that former world long jump and sprint champ Dick Richards of San Diego County, who helped design the Vers-A-Bloc starting blocks,  is back! He’ll be in the M75 100, 200 and long jump after a long pause from competition. Thanks go to Sherry Quack and Ivan Cropper of USATF Indy HQ for getting the roster online! 


The posted roster has about 230 names (corrected from an earlier figure I posted), which is a decent Team USA turnout. 

However, it’s not as strong a contingent as in past years. Phil Raschker and Bill Collins, citing costs, will compete in the October World Masters Games in Sydney instead, for example. But Lahti has almost 4,000 fewer entrants than 2007 Riccione worlds, so our chances at medals expand.
I’ll do my best to report what I see in Lahti.

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July 24, 2009

2 Responses

  1. peter taylor - July 24, 2009

    Thanks, Ken, for putting up the list. It’s a very short list indeed; I counted only 230 competitors, many of whom either competed at Oshkosh or signed up for that meet and then scratched. My guess, then, is that the Finland meet cost Oshkosh no more than 50 entrants (many people entered both, some who are going to Finland would not have been able to go to Oshkosh because of commitments other than Finland, etc.).
    Will wait to see what the numbers are for Sr Games (California), which are coming up shortly. I have a suspicion that Sr Games will end up being a bigger factor in the modest turnout for Oshkosh than Lahti will turn out to be. Economy could also have been a factor re Oshkosh.
    I found flying to Appleton to be quite easy, and other people I know flew to Milwaukee, Green Bay, or Madison. Would like to hear from Mellow Johnny on why the Oshkosh numbers were rather disappointing (about 1000 total, including 963 Americans). Oshkosh was topheavy with great performances but still didn’t get the numbers.

  2. Ron Kirkpatrick - July 27, 2009

    Emil Pawlik and Karren Huff-Pawlik are also both competing. Good luck to them both. … Ron K.

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