Damien Leake, Linda Cohn dominate Huntsman World Senior Games

Damien Leake (in red) and Charles Allie (at right) were truly blurs in the Sierra Gold 100.Damien Leake (in red) and Charles Allie (at right) were truly blurs in July's Sierra Gold 100.

Damien Leake didn’t run at Malaga, but the M65 sprint star’s marks at the mid-October Huntsman World Senior Games make for interesting comparisons. It isn’t apples to apples since the Utah meet didn’t have heats and semis. And conditions differ. But check out Damien’s times and distances. ( ts are here.)

Linda and Damien each had a $1,000 payday at Nevada Union High School.

Linda and Damien each had a $1,000 payday at Nevada Union High School in July.

He won the M65 100 in 12.52. Malaga gold went to Britain’s Stephen Peters in 12.56.

He won the M65 200 in 26.74. Malaga gold went to Stephen in 24.84 (Damien would have taken bronze.)

He won the M65 long jump with 5.09 (16-8 1/4). Malaga gold went to Germany’s Wolfgang Ritte with 5.44 (my original post erred in saying it was Italy’s Ignazio Manfre’ at 4.50.)

(Damien also won the Huntsman 50 in 6.80 and the standing long jump with 2.56/8-4 3/4).

Another prolific star at Huntsman (who also competed at Malaga) was W65 thrower/sprinter Linda Cohn, who lives in the Northridge section of Los Angeles, a short freeway drive away from Damien in Van Nuys.

Linda in Utah won her specialty (and WR event) javelin with 33.34 (109-4), discus with 23.73 (77-10 1.4), long jump with 3.50 (11-5 3/4), 50 in 8.53, 100 in 16.70. She also was second in the shot and standing long jump.

Finally, check out the results for M75 Bill Wilson, who won six golds and two silvers in St. George, Utah.

His Northern California hometown paper quoted him: “I just keep adding events,” said Wilson, who competed in his first Huntsman Games 11 years ago. “I started with softball, and my wife saw all the other sports there and asked me what I did in high school. I told her, ‘I did the broad jump and the high jump and ran the relay,’ so she said ‘I’m going to sign you up for next year.’ The next year came and I won the long jump.”

More recently, M60 reporter Ken Stone and W60 writer/photographer Chris Stone won a total of 13 awards at Tuesday’s San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. We didn’t break a sweat that night, fortunately. The hard work was over the previous year.

Chris won four first-place plaques and me two.

But I’ve also been busy covering stuff like a Bernie Sanders rally and a Monday night temple vigil for the Pittsburgh massacre victims. (See my ambush interview of San Diego County’s district attorney, who went mum when asked about an anti-George Soros website some considered anti-Semitic.)

Check these out:

Chris and Ken (center) showed off their hardware (woodenware) at Press Club awards.

Chris and Ken (center) showed off their hardware (woodenware) at Press Club awards.

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About the Author

Ken Stone
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and webmaster since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials. He worked for 10 newspapers and now reports for Times of San Diego. Write him at TrackCEO@aol.com or kens@timesofandiego.com. Story tips always welcome!

2 Comments on "Damien Leake, Linda Cohn dominate Huntsman World Senior Games"

  1. Congratulations to these two fine athletes. I like the fact that Damien added the long jump and standing long jump titles to his sprint victories. Although he’s been doing the long jump for awhile, many people see him as a brilliant sprinter only.

    Linda Cohn branched out a long time ago, albeit she’s still probably best known as a superb javelin thrower.

    The key difference between Malaga (worlds) and this meet was elevation. For this meet it was 2860 feet (872 meters), while for Malaga it was 36 feet (11 meters).

  2. No 2019 Huntsman news?

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