Fictional Masters

Three years ago, I reviewed the first documentary film devoted to Masters track: "Racing Against the Clock," which followed five women in their championship season, ending at the 2003 World Masters Athletic Championships in Carolina, Puerto Rico.

Last month, I reviewed something even more unlikely -- the first novel to revolve around Masters track. And coincidentally, the book also concluded at Puerto Rico worlds. As a work of literature, it has problems. But I still celebrate it as a Masters milestone.

The author is Cornell Stephenson, who five years ago won four M40 sprint medals at Puerto Rico. He named the book "That Masterful Season," and its 212 pages include photos of him and his friends at worlds and other meets. Despite its fictional flaws, the novel does justice to the Masters track experience. But as I wrote Cornell on my other blog: "You're a hell of a better author than I am a quarter-miler."

Written over a series of months, "That Masterful Season" is mainly intriguing for its characters -- all of whom were inspired by real life. I easily picked out a half-dozen characters based on real people. Some are barely disguised. The fictional doubles of USA Team Manager Sandy Pashkin and M40 hurdler Darnell Gatling have the same initials.

"That Masterful Season" mashes up real experiences and events (as well as people), but it creates situations as well. One that daunted me: several references to drug-testing of Masters record-setters at the Penn Relays.

USA Track & Field doesn't drug-test masters. Period. But I wasn't sure if that applied to Penn. So I wrote several people, and nobody could tell me for sure whether Masters were drug-tested in 2003. I seriously doubt it. I think the doping test scenes in the book were inserted to make it look more lifelike to readers unfamiliar with our circuit. No biggie.

Cornell didn't take a conventional route to publication, however. He didn't hire an agent and try to land a book deal. Instead, he went the self-publishing route.

Some folks would say he went to a "vanity press" -- a publisher that charges an author a set sum for a given number of books. But Xlibris, the publisher of "That Masterful Season," rejects the "vanity" label, saying on its Web site: "Xlibris is not a publisher. We are a publishing services provider."  Whatever.

Stephenson, who claims an M40 Masters best of 48.94 in the 400, and world records in the 4x100 and distance medley relays, is a Los Angeles middle school coach and teacher. His book tells the stories of eight M40 or M45 elite sprint buddies -- four on the West Coast and four on the East -- as they prepare for the Penn Relays, juggle work and personal lives and finish up (most of them) at the 15th World Masters Athletics Championships in Puerto Rico, in July 2003. It's a quick read. I finished its 45 bite-sized chapters in two sittings.

Early on, I applauded Cornell on how he nailed the complicated lives of Masters athletes - who fight daily battles to balance jobs, family duties and training sessions. Many sports novels focus on the young and care-free, certainly not athletes fretting about expanding their sales lines or navigating office politics. The book lacks focus, however, and I got lost in competing narratives, losing track of who was who.

But one thing kept me riveted: Who did he base his characters on?

How much of M45 character Dr. Beree Riggins -- an East Coast heart surgeon in the book -- is drawn from true-life cardiothoracic surgeon Ray Blackwell of Delaware?

How much of M40 character Alan Simpson -- whose cherished wife, Linda, is undergoing chemotherapy -- is true-life star Sal Allah, whose beloved wife, Lynn, died of breast cancer in 2005?

How much of M40 character Greg Jackson of Los Angeles - with an ex-wife and a teen-age daughter - was San Diego's Kettrell Berry, who has an ex-wife and track-star teen daughter?

How much of Canadian character Lee Pulley is represented by Canada's David Lee Provo, who in real life beat Stephenson in two races at Puerto Rico?

And take one guess who this is:

"It was finally time to start the 400 finals for the 50-54 division. The race was highly anticipated due to the presence of Houston native Colin Williams who at one time or another owned a dozen different Masters records from the 100 to the 400 as well as both sprint relays."

Yup, Bill Collins of Houston, the inaugural GeezerJock of the Year.

Even foreign athletes get their moment in Cornell's sun. The novel mentions "current world record holder (at 400) Pietro Franconi" of Italy. Of course, this is an homage to real-life M40 WR man: Enrico Saraceni of Italy (who didn't run at Puerto Rico, by the way.)

And I doubt the book's Tri-state Allstars are anything but Sprint Force America.

Cornell doesn't deny the obvious, telling me: "All of the main characters are based on combinations of masters competitors whom I've admired, but with fictional lives."

Therein lies the rub. How do you build a gripping novel - which normally includes bad guys, good guys and dicey situations -- when the key characters are based on real people (and respected friends)? 

"That Masterful Season" doesn't have a wide natural constituency in the fiction-reading public, but because so many characters draw on real people, I think sales to his circle of friends alone will keep it in print.

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Old school

Thirty years ago, on assignment for Kansas Alumni magazine, I interviewed two fifty-something athletes who -- can you fathom it? -- were still running track! One was Jack Greenwood of Medicine Lodge, Kan.

Jack was a legend even then, having set age-group world records in the hurdles and won titles in early Masters world championships. In 1997, he was elected to the second class of the USATF Masters Hall of Fame.

But by then he'd mainly hung up his spikes. 

Still, he remains The Man in the 400-meter hurdles, and his M50 age-group world record of 58.1 was considered untouchable since he clocked it one July day in Gresham, Ore., in 1976. That is, until a week ago Sunday, when a Brit named Howard Moscrop beat it with a 57.68 at an open meet in London.

I couldn't help myself. I phoned Jack in Aurora, Colo., for his reaction.

Greenwood, now 82, was surprised to learn that someone had broken his M50 world record. Not because he thought the record was that great, but because he didn't know anyone was still running the event.

"By golly, that's all right," Jack said of Moscrop's 57.68. "I wish him good luck, and I'd like him to see if he could lower it some more. It's fine with me." Jack says he hasn't gotten National Masters News in five years, and has no Internet access at home, so he wasn't aware that the event was still being contested.

I read the British newspaper article on Howard's mark to Jack, and his reaction was one of gratitude: "I'm glad someone broke (the record), and good to know it's an Englishman."

I asked why, and Jack replied: "My ancestors were from around Manchester."

Jack's paternal ancestors were from England, he said, and his mother's side of the family was Danish. He also recalled the friends he had made in England as part of the David Pain USMITT tour of Europe in 1972. He also recalled fondly his friendship with an English athlete named Keith Whittaker, and wondered if he were still alive. I said I'd check it out.

Jack's left knee -- his lead leg in the hurdles -- is arthritic. He said he injured it after the 1991 Helsinki WAVA world championships. But he still runs several times a week. He says he runs or jogs a half-mile every other day and throws in several sessions a week of sprints. He says he does the 50, 60, 80 and 110 (yard) dashes and calls it a day.

His wife of 53 years, Nancy, told me on the phone that Jack has had three heart procedures in recent years, but Jack doesn't remember when the last one was. Not important anyway. He says his doctor approves of his running regimen, telling him recently: "Whatever you're doing, you're doing right."

The Greenwoods have two sons -- a schoolteacher and one who works in electronics -- and one grandchild living in Kansas, who they'll see in a couple weeks. The grandchild has Internet access.

Jack Greenwood is one of my heroes, and not just because we ran the same race and both went to the University of Kansas. He's simply one of the greatest age-group athletes in history. This wasn't something I realized when I first spoke to him for Kansas Alumni.

It was an honor to chat with him -- again.

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Mt. SAC Relays

Few major invitational meets allow Masters. The Penn Relays this coming weekend is one that does allow Masters athletes. The Mt. SAC Relays in Southern California is another. Mt. SAC stands for Mt. San Antonio College, a junior college tucked into the rolling hills east of Los Angeles in Walnut.

This past weekend, Mt. SAC saw some wonderful Masters races -- even with some major no-shows (due to injuries and other reasons). I also had a chance to chat with a high jumper I idolized in high school: two-time Olympian Reynaldo Brown. He's making a Masters comeback, he says, at the Pasadena Senior Games this summer. It'll be his first competition since 2000. A kidney ailment sidelined him for years, but now it's resolved, Rey says. He's 58 this year -- and looks fantastic. (I'll post photos at Masterstrack.com of him and all the Masters events in coming days.)

Among the Masters highlights at Sunday's events:

Colleen Barney, the 2003 world champion at 100-meter dash in W35, made a triumphant return to competition after a few years off and focusing on her legal career and a daughter who is a champion diver. Colleen might race only once more this season, however. (That's what I'm told by a friend.) But she seemed to have fun out there on a cool but comfortable day in Walnut, Calif. Her W40 race was combined with the W50 race, BTW, after several entrants had to drop out with injuries, including last year's champion, Rita Hanscom.

Canadian Tom Dickson, 54, won the M50 100 meters, wearing all red. Tom also won this race in 2005 and 2006. He's a coach at Simon Fraser University who accompanies his athletes at Mt. San Antonio College and jumps into the Masters sprints for fun. This winter, Tom was named the 2007 British Columbia Master Athlete of the Year.

Horace Grant, an M55 newbie, edged M55 world champion Nolan Shaheed, 58, in the men's 800-meter run. Nolan bravely pushed the pace for much of the race, but Horace (traveling all the way from his home in Texas), showed great strength in outsprinting Nolan in the last 300.

Willie Gault, who turns 48 in September, had the honor of anchoring the HSI elite team in the 4x100-meter invitational race -- which pit him against world champion Tyson Gay! The Hudson Smith International 'A' squad clocked 39.72. I doubt any relay foursome in history has ever gone sub-40 with a 47-year-old on board.

Aaron Thigpen, who ran a legal 10.60 a year ago at this meet, defended his 100-meter victory with a legal 10.95 today. But after winning the 200 today in 22.45, the results show him without a place. Whatever. He collected a gold medal for the effort anyway. In fourth place in the 100 was Jeff Williams, who the PA announcer reminded us several times was the 5th-place finisher in the Michael Johnson 19.32 race at the Atlanta Olympics.

David Ashford, the M40 world record holder in the 110-meter high hurdles, is 45 now. Last Friday at Mt. SAC, he ran the highs. No, I mean the HIGH highs. Competing in a university/open heat, David came close to the listed, unofficial single-age WR for 42-inch hurdles of 15.2 with his 15.54 in a three-man heat. But David can claim the single-age American record, creaming the old mark of 17.8.

Meanwhile, on the Hawaiian isle of Maui, 37-year-old Jeff Laynes ran a 10.36 for 100 meters in the Blue and Gold Invitational Saturday at the Yamamoto Track & Field Facility. That appears to be his fastest time since 2006, when he clocked an amazing 10.17.

On to Penn!

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Euflexxa expands support for Masters sports

Tuesday was Tax Day in America, and Masters athletes will have shipped off their returns with a mixture of relief and regret.

One deduction we won't be listing is the expense of our sport. Entering meets, traveling to sites and staying overnight can be a big bite. We do this willingly, of course -- the price of participation. But what if we had a sugar daddy who paid our way to meets?? Wouldn't that be cool?

For 24 members of Sprint Force America, that fantasy will soon become a reality.

A New York-based Masters track club, Sprint Force America has just come into possibly the biggest chunk of change in Masters track history. A corporate sponsor is pledging to underwrite one year (with an option for a second year) of competition at major meets for at least 24 athletes, some in their 70s. The sponsor is the Swiss-based drugmaker Ferring Pharmaceuticals, whose U.S. arm is pushing an injectable treatment for knee arthritis called Euflexxa.

SFA President and co-founder Ed Gonera, a world-champion masters sprinter, provided details of the sponsorship in a phone call last week. With the help of Bob Gray, Frank Schiro and Saladin Allah, Ed wrangled a big time sponsorship.

Under a deal that Ferring hasn't made public yet, Sprint Force America would get expenses for six sprinters in each of four age groups: 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70-79. The money would send these sprinters, mainly relay teams, to the Penn Relays, the National Senior Olympics (and qualifying meets), the USATF masters nationals and perhaps to Lahti, Finland, for the WMA world outdoor championships in 2009.

Currently committed to SFA are some of the best masters sprinters in America -- from as far away as California, Oregon and Texas.

Ed Gonera, Sal Allah and Frank Schiro are among the sponsored athletes. Others on board so far are Bob Bowen, Neil Steinberg, Greg Pizza, Marty Krulee, Ray Blackwell, Anthony Searles, Archie Glaspy, Rich Rizzo, Larry Colbert, Bob Lida, Wayne Bennett, Gary Sims, Mack Stewart, Dick Camp, Corey Moody, Steve Nearman and Rod Jett.

For its part, Ferring would film these sprinters in competition (wearing uniforms with the Euflexxa logo) and use their images in ads marketing the pain medicine. In fact, a film crew already is set to tape the SFA teams at Penn this month.

Although USATF frowns on "national clubs" in Masters track, they exist under a loophole in which athletes from any association can join a club in any other association if they get permission from their "home" association.

Ed vigorously rejects the notion that SFA is "poaching" America's top sprinters from other clubs, saying: "I just want to showcase good athletes. . . . I'm not going after anybody -- (especially if) they're already attached to another team. I don't care if it's Michael Johnson."

Ed, who turns 56 in mid-May, is particularly proud of the fact M70 sprinters will be sponsored. These include Lida of Kansas, Camp of Maine, Sims of Oregon, Stewart and Bennett of Texas, Rizzo of New York and Colbert of Maryland. These gents already have teamed for several world records. And they expect more to come.

At the moment, women aren't in the mix. But Ed hopes that Ferring will eventually underwrite champion female sprinters as well.

Ed has been running Masters track since 1994, when he was 42. He's won 10 medals at worlds, including five golds, and taken 17 national championships. He claims eight world records, two American records and considers a highlight a 48.8 in the 400 at 43 in 1995 "before I cracked my pubic bone two weeks later ouch!"

Ed says he's on the road back from three herniated discs, an arthritic back and foot, stenosis and "fatness."

"I still have goals," says Ed, who competed in the 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2005 world masters meets. "Got to keep working and deal with the setbacks."

Ferring, which in 2005 had "turnover" of 688 million Euros, telegraphed its intent to be a big-time player in American Masters sports by becoming the title sponsor of Euflexxa GeezerJock of the Year awards through Masters Athlete magazine.

It appears that FerringUSA is looking for new folks to be the face of Euflexxa, perhaps because its current spokesman, 1976 Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner, has gotten involved in a reality TV show with his stepdaughters (called "Keeping Up with the Kardashians").

Alex Drigan, who works in Ferring's marketing department, said that characterization of Jenner and Ferring parting ways was "inaccurate." Drigan said, "...We did decide as a company to look at other opportunities to find new 'faces.' Jenner was a great spokesperson for Euflexxa as he totally embodied the spirit of athleticism (at any age). Hence we have decided to look at other sponsorships like Sprint Force America, Geezer Jock of the Year Award and are now looking at another Masters event in another sport."

Ed tells me that over the years he's approached dozens of potential corporate sponsors. But Ferring is the first to promise big bucks. Although Ed has budgets in mind for each event SFA attends, he doesn't have a grand total to tout.

In any case, this is big.

Now the only question is: How will Sprint Force America athletes report this on their taxes a year from now?

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A record mess

Over the weekend, we saw some dramatic Masters action on the track and roads, including what was touted as an M45 American record for the 5,000-meter road run and a potential American record for the W40 1500 meters. Both records require a grain of salt, however.

At Sunday's Carlsbad 5000, 45-year-old Dennis Simonaitis of Draper, Utah, outkicked 46-year-old Pete Magill to win the Masters (over-40) race.

Simonaitis' winning time of 14 minutes, 45 seconds beat Magill's listed American age-group record of 14:55. (Magill also ducked under what the Union-Tribune story said was his old M45 best, running 14:48). Simonaitis earned $1,000 and Magill $500, helping him pay for gas on the trip home to South Pasadena.

Even more amazing: Simonaitis and Magill's marks were faster than the winners of the M30, M35 and M40 age groups.

But back to the records mess.

According to usatf.org, the M45 road record for 5000 meters (3.1 miles) is 15:07 by Doug Bell in 1997. A pending record of 15:04 by Magill also is listed on the site, which says "last updated: 12/24/2007."  But no mention of the 14:45.

According to runningusa.org, Stephen Lester was 45 when he ran the 5K on the roads of Magna, Utah, in 14:34 in 1988. (But that race apparently was more downhill than level, so it's considered a "best" and not a record.)

But that's nothing compared with the confusion over the women's 1,500-meter track record in the 40-44 age group.

On Friday at the Stanford Invitational in Northern California, 40-year-old Aeron Arlin-Genet of San Luis Obispo, Calif., took sixth in her elite section in 4:27.68. That betters the listed AR of 4:32.73 by Joan Nesbit in 2002. Of course, it falls short of Alisa Harvey's unrecognized 4:26.49 at the 2006 Penn Relays -- an automatically timed split on the way to a mile record.
 
But forgotten in the fog of early Internet time is Ruth Wysocki's incredible efforts of 1997.

Wysocki -- a 1984 Olympian whose father Willis Kleinsasser was a national champion of the early Masters nationals in the late 1960s -- was 40 when she ran 4:08.69 in winning the metric mile at the Reebok VO2 Classic at Los Angeles on May 18, 1997. Both Wysocki and a track statistician wrote me to confirm this mark. 

If for some reason that time wasn't legit enough, Wysocki ran the 1500 (about 100 meters short of a mile) later that  summer in 4:11.58. And what meet witnessed that feat? Just the USA national open track championships.

The biggest reason for Masters records falling through the cracks in the 35-40 age range is the likelihood that the marks are made in open/elite competition, and athletes are used to meet directors or governing bodies taking care of records paperwork.

Masters are expected to bird-dog their own records applications. The major exceptions are marks set in national or world championships. But I guess some records don't get grandfathered.

On the other hand, it's a good thing that not all "records" get automatic ratification.

At the beforementioned Carlsbad 5000, the results show the winner of the W85 age group as Nancy Fries, 88, of Newport Beach, whose time of 22:56 defies belief.

As it should.

I looked up Nancy's other marks on the Net. Turns out she was 41 in July 2005.
 
Some of us age faster than others, I guess.

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Prove it

In June 1929, national sprint champion Frank Wykoff of Southern California declared that "starting blocks are bunk." He apparently preferred holes dug in the ground. Or something older: a standing start.

Nearly 80 years later, thirty-something decathlete Dimitry Yakoushkin of Northern California is wondering if maybe Frank, who died in 1980, was onto something.

On his blog last week, Yakoushkin noted the current supremacy of block starts but wonders: "Was a properly controlled study done to prove they were better than a standing start? ... With today's all-weather surfaces, are they beneficial? Or have we just been jumping off bridges because everyone else has?"

He notes that a standing athlete can have his center of gravity at the starting line, as opposed to 8 inches (or more) behind the line when using blocks.

"Also, the athlete using blocks has to do more work to bring that center of gravity upwards, to a normal running position. As far as creating more force from using the blocks, has it been proven? And if so, what effect does it have on time, the only thing we care about? It's all theory until someone proves it."

Yakoushkin, you should know, is an engineer whose resume includes work in research and development, so he brings a scientist's eye to the issue.

Masters might pay attention, since so-called "down starts" for older sprinters can be a chore -- or impossible, given the lack of strength for the proper pushoff.

Under World Masters Athletics rules, starting blocks are optional. And many world champions, including Bill Collins in his 50s, have used standing starts to win races of 60, 100 or 200 meters. In Bill's case, he eschewed blocks for a time because of a muscle injury he didn't want to exacerbate.

In 2003, after winning world titles and a national championship, Collins said: "The standing start helps me, because it takes pressure off of my sore hamstring. I've had so many injuries, as long as I can compete well starting like that I'll continue to do it. But athletes are getting better and you need an edge. I do have a good forward lean with my stand up start and that helps me a lot."

At the Penn Relays in April 2006, Collins set an M50 world record of 11.50 seconds in the 100-meter dash. With a standing start.

In the upper age groups, especially the 80s and 90s, most sprinters start standing up.

Track researchers have long considered the relative merits of the three main types of block starts -- the bunch (with feet close together and not far behind the starting line), medium (blocks farther back) and elongated (blocks well apart with rear block well behind the line).

Advocates of all techniques debate which is best, and even a formula was devised:

Impulse = F x t (force x time)

F = ma, where m = mass, and a = average acceleration.

However, a = (vf - vi)/t, where vf = final velocity, and vi = initial velocity

Therefore, F = m(vf - vi)/t

Or, F = (mvf -mvi)/t

Hence, Ft = mvf - mvi

In a note alerting me to his questions, Yakoushkin writes: "You know of any studies or research that shows starting blocks are beneficial over a standing start?  I can't find any, and I think they might be something grandfathered in with no real good reason other than they 'feel' better."

He urges a serious study pitting bocks vs. no blocks.

But you don't have to wait years for the results. Try a standing start in practice yourself.

No guarantee you'll beat Bill Collins. But it wouldn't hurt.

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Running indoors

They held a Masters world track and field championships last week in France -- in the central town of Clermont-Ferrand a few hours south of Paris. Team USA brought home some 50 gold medals at WMA indoor worlds. No wonder, when your crew includes two former IAAF Masters Athletes of the Year.

The latest -- 61-year-old Phil Raschker of suburban Atlanta -- didn't match her record haul of Riccione last summer, when she won 10 titles. This time she took it easy. Won six gold medals and two silver for Etats-Unis. (She's saving her strength for April, when she stands a good chance of becoming the oldest winner of the AAU Sullivan Award.)

The other IAAF superstar was Houston's Bill Collins, 57, who merely took the 60-, 200- and 400-meter races in his age group -- and ran the second leg on the champion 4x200-meter relay team -- in the M40 age group. (That's right; he dropped down to race athletes as much as 17 years younger.)

And, of course, Americans set their share of records:

In W90, Ida Keeling ran 60 meters in 31.82, which appears to be the first time any lady of her maturity has run the race. WMA doesn't list a world indoor record for her age group.

In M60, Charles Allie smoked 200 meters in 24.95, beating the listed world indoor record of 25.10 set by fellow Yank Larry Colbert in March 1998.

In W40, Renee Henderson lowered her own American record for 60 meters to 7.78 seconds.

And in W45 Joy Upshaw-Margerum (big sister of Olympic long jumper Grace Upshaw) reduced her own American record in the 60-meter hurdles to 9.09 seconds.

But perhaps the most impressive mark was by Brooklyn's Val Barnwell, 50, who broke Collins' age-group world record for 60 meters. Val ran 7.18 last Tuesday -- a time that would have won the M45 age group and taken third in M40! 

Val's mark would have been an afterthought, however, if Bruce McBarnette of Sterling, Virginia, another 50-year-old, had raised his calf a bit in the high jump.

After watching McBarnette easily win the event at 1.90 meters (6-2-3/4), M50 competitor Jim Barrineau egged on his fellow American to go for it -- top the fabled M50 world indoor record of 2.00 meters (6-6-3/4) by Germany's Thomas Zacharias in 1997.

McBarnette had the bar set at 2.01 (6-7).

Olympian Barrineau, no slouch himself, once held the M40 world outdoor record of 6-11. Here's how he described McBarnette's series to me:

"I witnessed one of the best jumps I've ever seen anyone take and miss. Bruce McBarnette (after a little nudging from me) decided to try to break Z-Man's supposedly untouchable record of 2.00 and forgo yet another ho-hum American Record. He had been smoking every height. 

"His first two attempts were what I would call 'undisciplined' and were not close. I told anyone standing near me not to leave yet. Bruce has an uncanny habit of pulling rabbits out of hats on third attempts. 

"Then it came. Fast approach, powerful lead leg and over he went. Only the bottom of his right calf nudged it off. Other than that it was a clean jump. Everybody was thunderstruck he got that close -- including me. After consulting some of the other jumpers, we concluded he would have probably cleared 1.99 or 2.00. Bruce now knows he can do it and, barring injury, he will. 

"The outdoor record is 'only' 1.98. I also believe we had the deepest M50 championships in history. My 1.81 clearance on second attempt would have garnered silver in M45."

The meet had its share of bonks as well -- officiating miscues, unfair calls, and just plain stupid organization. More than a dozen athletes shared the dirty details on my other blog (at masterstrack.com/blog), but the worst were these:

-- M45 hurdler Dexter McCloud of Georgia, the defending world champ in the 60-meter hurdles, won his race but found himself disqualified after several rivals complained that he'd had an unfair advantage. And what would that be? Someone, at McCloud's request, had steadied his blocks to keep them from slipping (as they had for another American, Dr. Fred Johnston).

Of course, people steady blocks all the time in U.S. meets. Never a peep.

The irony? After McCloud complained, they gave him the gold anyway -- but still list him on the official Web site as DQ.

-- In the 4x200 relay for the M60 age group, the American team ran into French officiating -- and came out with no medal at all.

Here's how world champion Steven Robbins of Seattle described the debacle:

"For the 4x2 relays, the rules state that team members 3 and 4 are placed at the line in the order that their incoming runner is at at the end of the back straightaway. I ran second on our USA team. I was in second position at the end of the backstretch and our third man appropriately put himself in lane 2.

"For some unknown reason, the official moved him to lane 6. I spotted him with about 20 meters to our handoff, but the confusion led to an athlete from another country stepping in between me and my teammate, and I went flying on my face.

"Laying on the ground, I stupidly pushed the baton forward to try to get it to my teammate and, for this action, our team was disqualified.

"I'm not writing this to complain. In fact, as I reread it, it looks like a script for a 1920s Mack Sennett comedy entitled "The Keystone Kops Put on a Track Meet." I respect and appreciate those cities that bid for world championships. But WMA has to do a lot more to ensure that officials know the rules and procedures and have thoroughly trained those who are working the meet."

Robbins, by the way, is a retired university professor who made his living writing books on management.

He managed to restrain himself in Clermont-Ferrand.

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