WMA up to the real records challenge?
Woe is WMA. Another week, another world masters record it won’t recognize. Last week it was sprint legend Merlene Ottey of Slovenia, 42, competing in a meet in Vienna, Austria, and clocking 7.30 in the 60 and 23.93 in the 200 — finishing third in both. This week it’s Regina Jacobs, 39, becoming the first woman of any age to run under 4 minutes for the 1500 indoors. Expect both marks to be ignored in WMA Land.
Ottey’s 60 bettered the listed world indoor W40 record of 8.01 by Denise Foreman (USA) at age 40 on 3-22-97. (Never mind that Ottey herself ran 7.12 at age 40 at Madrid on March 14, 2001.) So much for the WMA records. But her 23.93 crushed the listed W40 record for 200 of 25.58 by Tilly Verhoef-Jacobs (NED) at age 41 on 1-25-98. (Merlene holds the world any-age record in the indoor 200 at 21.87. She ran that in 1993 at age 32.)
Jacobs’ metric mile comes six months before she turns 40. At the adidas Boston Indoor Games — at the site of the upcoming USATF National Masters Indoor Championships — she set a world elite/open record in this race:
1st 3:59.98 Regina Jacobs
2nd 4:09.91 Elena Iagar
3rd 4:12.75 Jenelle Deathrage
4th 4:13.91 Heather Sagan
5th 4:15.62 Collette Liss
6th 4:16.75 Meskerem Legesse
7th 4:17.78 Lyudmila Vasilyeva
8th 4:19.02 Sarah Hann
9th 4:19.25 Geraldine Hendricken
10th 4:32.59 Birhane Hirpassa
11th 4:33.66 Jennifer Patruno
The previous world elite record was 4:00.27 by Romania’s Doina Melinte in 1990. Regina’s incredible sub-4 milestone also beats the listed world masters W35 indoor record of 4:03.08 by Mary Slaney (USA) in 1997.
But if that’s amazing, this is depressing: If Regina and Merlene don’t trot around with paperwork in hand and gets the needed signatures of timers, judges, etc., they won’t get credit for world masters records. (It’s unlikely meet management will do this either, but why should they have to?)
So here’s the insane scenario — in a few months, IAAF ratifies Regina’s 3:59.98 as a world indoor record but World Masters Athletics ignores it.
That would mean the end of Western Civilization as we know it. Or should.
WMA’s elite masters troubles won’t end here, however. Ottey is entered in the 60 in the Energizer Euroseries meet in Gent, Belgium, on Feb. 9. And Jacobs will probably blast a half-dozen other records when she crosses into W40 territory in August 2003.
Woe is us.
3 Responses
“sprint legend Merlene Ottey of Slovenia”!?!
Good Grief, Ken, I know that you know that Merlene Ottey has always stayed Jamaican–unlike those cagey Africans (mostly Kenyans?) who, for reasons of their own, end up in Denmark or utter cold climes. I’m sure it was a little digital slip, committed in your haste to get the message out. Sydney Maree was South African, right? But that was political; the others have seemed sport-related, or romantic.
Speaking of Jamaicans, I’m reminded of two notable performances from the 1984 Olympics: In the 400m Semi, Bert Cameron, expected to anchor Jamaica to yet another 4 x 400 medal, pulled up sharply at 200m with a severe hamstring cramp–but only momentarily (T & F News calculated he lost a full second with his hobbled hopping at the end of the backstretch, where he’d pressed the American with his 200m split in the low 21s, as I had it clocked). In just about the gutsiest performance imaginable–slow, notso heroic Marathoners notwithstanding–Bert somehow gathered himself to qualify for the final, in something like 45.4, if memory serves. I spoke with a Jamaican assistant coach the next day, who told me Bert just couldn’t make it for the final, much less for the relay where a further pull would jeopardize the entire team’s chances. I need to check to see how they eventually did.
As most know, Jamaica has had a tradition of sterling 400m runners since the 50s epoch of Oly Champ George Rhoden; the mercurial, leggy Herb McKinley, who blasted the first sub-44 relay leg, in Melbourne (1956); even 800m Champ Arthur Wint, whose equally long legs could churn out a nice 46 second leg. The inspiring statue outside the Kingston, Jamaica, stadium looks like a composite of Wint and McKinley. Incidentally, Bob Marley’s wake was held there, the scene of many a political rally/concert for Marley’s man, Michael Manley.
The other performance, not nearly as noteworthy, was by UTEP’s Jamaican sprinter Raymond Stewart. After a nifty, early morning 10.15 qualifier, and a solid Semi, Ray lined up right next to Carl Lewis–he of the 4 Medal Boast, the excuse for passing most of his Long Jumps in the “chilly” 70 degree Coliseum–got out nicely, and was well-positioned for a Bronze, when Carl went into that notorious overdrive, which stood Ray right up straight (any sprinters out there know the feeling), relegating him to 4th, I think it was. ((End, sorry Paragraphing doesn’t seem to work.))
Raggin’ but not ragin’, to a Reggae beat,
Jack
PS One of the best political graffiti ever, on a wall in Kingston: IMF..Is Michael Fault (Jamaican street slang omits the “apostrophe ‘s'”, just as they’d say “for he”, but not “we”, as that’s “I and I”. American Gen X’ers only mangle the pronoun in the first person, apparently thinking the correct “for her and me” sounds sooo common.)
One of the best contemporary adventure novels I’ve read is “The Harder They Come”, by Jamaican Michael Thelwell, then (1970s) a Sociology Prof. at the U. of SE Mass. Commissioned by Grove Press (of Lady Chatterly’s Lover fame) following the Jamaican film of the same name, still available on video, occastional sub-titles and all. Much more than a movie book–which would be plenty in this case, being the updated story of a legendary Jamaican bandit desperado named Rygin (Yup, that’s “ragin'” down there)–it’s an entire sociological treatment (not treatise) of the rural-to-urban culture, with Reggae and Ganja sub-themes.
Good Golly, Miss Molly, I stand corrected: (from the second link, “Merlene”, to the Merlene Ottey Fan Club, no less, under “Latest News”) “As of today Merlene Ottey has been cleared to compete for Slovenia instead of her native Jamaica. IAAF General Secretary Istvan Gyulai said today: “I can confirm that the IAAF has just received the official letter of clearance from the Jamaican Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA). Under IAAF rules, an athlete who changes nationality must wait 3 years before competing for a new country, or just 1 year if both parties agree”.
The last time Merlene Ottey competed for Jamaica was at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She has been living in the Slovenian capital of Ljubliana since 1998 and was granted Slovenian citizenship on 7 May 2002.”
Guess I’ll stick to Literature and old Comix, where Slobovia was Al Capp’s favorite haunt for you-know-what.
Jack
Nice article found your site searching in yahoo I think you could have taken a more neutral view.
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