August 2018

Karla del Grande completes her first WR sweep with a 29.21for 200 in Ontario championships at site of 2020 Toronto worlds.

Records August 10, 2018

Canadian greats Karla del Grande, Carol LaFayette-Boyd crush sprint WRs in Surrey

Karla del Grande added to her legend at two recent Canadian meets, setting and lowering the W65 world records in the 100 and 200. She clocked 13.96 to beat her late-July mark of 14.00 at Ontario, and 28.53 to beat her own recent 29.21 and lower the listed 200 WR of 29.37 by Nadine O’Connor in 2007. And a masters mole tells me: “Due to a timing glitch in the 200-meter race, Karla and another competitor had to rerun their race about 30 minutes after the first race. We will never know what her time was in the first race, but…

Records August 7, 2018

Records set (W80 pentathlon, W55 throws pent) and record lost (W60 800-meter run)

So much for a lull between Spokane nationals and Malaga worlds. Christa Bortignon of British Columbia scored 4838 points in the outdoor pentathlon over the weekend to nip the listed W80 world record of 4319 by Vermont’s Flo Meiler at 2014 Winston-Salem nationals. Christa competed at Canadian masters nationals at South Surrey Athletic Park. (See results here.) Not far away, in Seattle, Neni Lewis beat the listed American record in the W55 throws pentathlon, scoring 4370 points. The previous record-holder (4219) was fellow Hall of Famer Carol Finsrud, who also competed — and set an AR in the ultraweight pent….

At Malaga, Spain, delegates to the General Assembly on Sept. 8 will elect a new WMA president from these candidates: Margit Jungmann, Vesa Lappalainen and Gary Snyder.

International August 5, 2018

Read ’em and vote: Interviews with candidates for WMA president at Malaga worlds

Who will succeed Australia’s Stan Perkins as WMA president? Will the General Assembly in Malaga downsize itself — by limiting each nation to a maximum of three delegates instead of five? Will the Age-Graded Tables be updated for single-year use instead of the current five-year groupings? Those questions will be answered the first Saturday of the world meet, under way in a month. Also up for a vote — eliminating the office of women’s representative. (The WMA Council, which made the proposal, said: “Over time the composition of the Council and the Committees of the Council have changed so that…

In 2008, George Mathews (left) and Jerry Bookin-Weiner chatted at the Reno annual USATF meeting.

General August 3, 2018

M90 records expected at National Masters Throws Championships in Seattle

If M100 Orville Rogers was the media star of Spokane, look for M90 William Platts to be the recordman at Seattle this weekend. He’s entered in the throws pentathlon at the USATF National Masters Throws Championships (strangely absent from the USATF nationals calendar.) His fan Suzy Hess Wojcik, a W75 Eugene thrower and former National Masters News publisher, called Bill: “Number 1 in the world in 5 events and 2 World ranking in another event.” In any case, USATF master mediafolks have issued a nice preview of the meet at West Seattle Stadium directed by George Mathews, a former masters…