Records June 8, 2018

Geraldine Finegan bumps Rita Hanscom as W50 decathlon record-holder

Dieter Massin of Germany shares news of an unofficial WR in the W50 decathlon. (Unofficial since WMA contests the women’s hep, not dec. Hence no records kept.) Dieter writes: “In 2010 these [age] factors changed; Bernd Rehpennig was the person in charge and he got an ‘order’ by WMA to revise all factors. Due to this change of factors, the results of Rita Hanscom are less than before, see the attachment. In regard to the performance of Geraldine Finegan in Stendal 14 days ago, the result of Geraldine is ‘unofficial’ world record. By the way: Bernd Rehpennig has created a…

James Patterson makes the spin look easy. It isn't.

Records June 6, 2018

James Patterson pulverizes Lad Pataki M55 American record in shot

George Mathews, our former national masters chair, writes from the Great Northwest: “Jim Patterson traveled to Seattle for the Seattle Parks & Recreation USATF-sanctioned meet (see results) and set a new men’s 55 shot put (American) record with a put of 16.23 meters (53-3). Jim looked very strong throughout the competition.” His record throw was on his third attempt. The meet was modest, but Jim’s effort with the 6-kilo ball beat the listed and legendary AR of 16.06 (52-8¼) by Hall of Famer Ladislav Pataki in Santa Barbara in 2001. Lad, who died of brain cancer in 2007, was a…

Scott Gross of Jacksonville, Florida, says he won't stop riding despite 4-year suspension for refusing drug test.

Doping June 5, 2018

Suspended M55 cyclist Scott Gross says he took banned DHEA

When USADA reps showed up at the Florida home of 59-year-old road cyclist Scott Gross at 8:32 p.m. May 3, he refused a drug test. So he drew an automatic 4-year suspension. He didn’t appeal. After posting about Scott’s case a couple weeks ago, I found him through his cycling shop, Open Road Bicycles. He called me, and we chatted for about a half-hour. He told me he refused testing, which he assumed would include drawing blood, because he met the USADA pair in his garage and didn’t think it was a suitable place. He also wasn’t sure the reps…

Brenda Matthews (red), Linda Cohn (middle) and Pat Kelly (blue) battle in a 50.

General June 4, 2018

Pasadena Senior Games gave us chance to improve, qualify for ABQ 2019

Masters track is great cuz you can still improve year-to-year despite age. So I was thrilled to run the 50-meter dash Saturday in 8.31 at the Pasadena Senior Games (held at Cal State Los Angeles because Caltech’s track is said to be undergoing rehab). A year ago, I ran 8.56 at Caltech. So that makes up for my dropping out of the 100 after four steps (calf cramp, related to high jumping). Mastersrankings.com has results from the two-day meet (with javelin held at Occidental College because or artificial turf Sunday). Many entrants tried their feet at multiple events — since…

Marianne the Muscular has the form to reach 40 feet perhaps

Records June 1, 2018

Marianne Maier’s monster throw is W75 world record in the shot

The German masters seite Lampis.net reports a massive improvement in the W75 shot world record. “The versatile 75-year-old “Maierin” [Marianne Maier] improved the global record … to 11.80m (38-8 3/4). It would have to be more precise – she pulverized it [by] 70 centimeters! And that with only three attempts” during a heptathlon Sunday at the Manfred Gonner Gedenkwettkampf der Masters. (See results here.) The listed WR is 11.10 (36-5) by Britain’s Evaun Williams at 2013 Porto Alegre worlds. “And since we are still pretty early in the outdoor season, the highlights are yet to come — it is not…

General May 30, 2018

Blessed chance to become a paid model, jump on mini-trampolines

Photographer Meredith Bless writes: “JumpSport (maker of fitness mini-trampolines) is shooting a photo and video project in June in San Diego and is looking for models to participate. It will be fun. Needed: two men and two women, aged 45 to 65. Need to be relatively fit but do not need to be buff. This is targeted toward regular people, not professional athletes. Pay: $100 per person. Each person will be needed for roughly 4 hours.” Selected models will be provided with a fitness trampoline to borrow and asked to practice a few simple routines (provided) prior to shooting. The…

Records May 28, 2018

Latvia’s Valdis Cela crushes M70 decathlon WR with stunning 8142

Valdis Cela is not a masters household name. Perhaps he should be after becoming the first M70 to break 8000 points in the decathlon. On Saturday and Sunday, the Latvian competed in the sixth annual Stendaler Hanse-Cup in Stendal, Germany. His 8142 (corrected from earlier 8143) blew away the listed mark of 7940 by German legend Rolf Geese, also at Stendal, in 2016. (See meet results.) A German masters blog notes that Valdis got pacing help in the 1500-meter run by Timo Ritte — son-in-law of vault god Wolfgang Ritte, who also took part in the weekend dec. (M65 Wolfgang…

Jenn showed smarts as well as skill in her jump strategy at Hayward Field.

Records May 26, 2018

Best vaulter in world at 36? Fersure it’s Jenn after 15-11 Pre win

London Olympic champ Jenn Suhr is sure having fun in her geezerhood. At 36, almost old enough to be a mother to some rivals, she won the Pre Classic vault Saturday with a W35 world record of 4.85 meters (15-11), upping her own listed WR of 4.83 (15-10) from a year ago. Social media didn’t seem to notice the age-group record. But WMA, bless its little heart, called attention to the mark on its coming-of-age Twitter feed. The WMA site breathlessly announced: “Thats (sic) right, breaking news coming out of Eugene at the IAAF diamond league is that Jennifer Suhr…

General May 25, 2018

Will Anthony Famiglietti run sub-4 at 40? Milestone is goal of steeple Olympian

Anthony Famiglietti, a two-time Olympian with a mile PR of 3:55.71 (in 2006), turns 40 in five months. He’s gearing up by training hard, pitching a documentary and letting the world know he’s shooting for a sub-4. It’s a stretch. But you gotta admire the grit. See Martin Fritz Huber’s story in Outside. The former steepler’s “moonshot mile is perhaps an unusual way to confront the beast of senescence, but it makes a crazy kind of sense. When you’ve spent more than half your life constructing your identity around the fact that you can run faster than 99.99 percent of…

Here USADA page that invites folks to finger suspected drug cheats — even in the masters ranks.

Doping May 24, 2018

USATF masters are subject to snitch program — as cyclist, 59, was

Nobody is safe. That’s my takeaway from an exchange of email I had Thursday with Brad Horn, a spokesman for USADA — the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. I queried him on how 59-year-old cyclist came to be sanctioned for refusing an out-of-competition drug test. I wanted to know where he was when he was solicited. (Brad doesn’t know yet.) But he said: “Ultimately, this case was the result of target testing, based on credible information received through USADA’s Play Clean Tip Line. USADA makes available a number of ways to report the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs in an effort to protect clean…