Three recent profiles of Malaga-goers make my favorite point: Everyone in masters track is competing despite issues. In the case of W65 hurdler Tina Bowman, M75 hammer dude George Mathews and M60 discuser Ralph Fruguglietti, the hurdles are medical.

From the Redmond News of Washington: “A year ago, Matthews took a break for hernia surgery at the Cascade Hernia & Surgical Solutions at Meridian Surgery Center in Puyallup. He credits his excellent care for getting him back to training in six weeks and competing a few months later.”

From the562.org of California: “Bowman recovered from rotator cuff surgery in April to win the W65 300m hurdles at the U.S. Masters National Championships in July in Spokane, Wash. She started running at 13 years old with the Long Beach Comets under Ron Allice, and has been training at LBSU for almost 35 years.”

From bakersfield.com: “After nearly 20 years of senior competition, Fruguglietti, already recovering from a shoulder injury, was diagnosed earlier this year with Type 2 diabetes and severe neuropathy of the feet. ‘I’ve always been one to find out what the issue is and tackle it,’ he said.”

BTW, those links — and many others — are posted in the Masters in the News section of our official USATF site.

(But don’t look for my stories there. Or this snarky site in the Links section. Apparently, I have masters cooties.)

In any case, I’m loving how our elites are getting archived attention at usatfmasters.org. Another way to stay informed is setting a Google Alert for “masters track” or “masters athletics.”

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