USATF press operation finally acknowledges our AOYs
USATF today formally announced our annual Masters Athletes of the Year — Bill Collins, Kathy Martin and Kay Glynn. Finally. Indy was only five weeks late doing so. (And it buried the info in a News & Notes, rather than giving our folks a stand-alone, headlined release.) In fact, Indy had the information March 17, but the release was delayed to avoid stealing thunder from Bob Weiner’s promotion of the then-upcoming Landover indoor nationals. (Bob is a member of the Potomac Valley Track Club, the host of Landover nationals.) Of course, we had the news first.  The Landover meet program also carried the awards lists. So why did Indy release the news today (or at all)? I bugged them.
Dave Clingan, chairman of the USATF Masters T&F Awards Committee, explains why we announce our honorees in March instead of December:
The timing we adopted allows us to 1) take our time accepting/posting
nominations, evaluating them, and voting (during Jan-Feb after the year is over), 2) make our decision prior to indoor nationals so that an informal recognition can take place there, and 3) allow plenty of time to order awards and make formal presentations to our winners at the outdoor nationals in the summer.Â
It’s confusing, of course, that we have a two-track awards system — with Dave’s committee deciding our major awards in the spring while a three-person committee picks a tiptop USATF Masters Athlete of the Year, revealed at the annual meeting in December.
USATF’s press operation is conditioned to announcing all USATF honorees at its annual convention, so when the masters come up with their own set of honorees, Indy doesn’t know what to do with them.
My advice to Indy: We give you the news. You post it. End of story.
2 Responses
Congratulations to Bill, Kay, and Kathy. All three have brought so many positive things to our program.
Ken uses the word “finally,” which made me think of Kay Glynn’s world mark in the pole vault for W55, which she set at the Pacific Association championships last year (the Pacific Association is the largest association in USATF, I am told). Absolutely everything was done correctly at the meet (including measuring the height before and after her jump), but the record was turned down. If you go to usatf.org you will still see Phil Raschker listed as the recordholder.
How can this be? How can someone set a world mark in a USATF championship, be honored for this and other brilliant performances as Athlete of the Year, then have her record discarded? It seems impossible when you think about it.
masters record keeping exists as it does to keep us all aware that the impossible is still possible when it comes to masters record keeping.
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