A.T.F.S. BULLETIN 2/2013 (December) ASSOCIATION of TRACK and FIELD STATISTICIANS 63Rd YEAR
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A.T.F.S. BULLETIN 2/2013 (December) ASSOCIATION of TRACK and FIELD STATISTICIANS 63rd YEAR EXECUTIVE President Paul JENES (Australia) [[email protected]] Vice President A. Lennart JULIN (Sweden) [[email protected]] Treasurer Tom CASACKY (United States) [[email protected]] Secretary Michael J. McLAUGHLIN (Australia/USA) [[email protected]] THIS BULLETIN Welcome to the second ATFS Bulletin of 2013, which contains words of wisdom from our President, Paul Jenes, details of standards for inclusion in the 2014 Annual, another interesting article from Ulf Lagerstrom, a list of publications for sale by members and the usual administrative information. Remember, that this Bulletin is YOUR Bulletin, and its effectiveness can only be achieved with contributions from you, the member. Please feel free to send me any items that you feel would be suitable for publication. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Dear ATFS Members The new ATFS website should now be available to all members. It is important that it is up to you the membership to indicate what should be included in our website and also to invite you to use the website. If you have anything related to the website don’t hesitate to contact Michael McLaughlin our secretary. The historic work continues. The 1900-1910 period is progressing very well with a very enthusiastic group of statisticians involved. I would like to thank the members for their enormous work in bringing to life a period of athletics well before our time. Tomas Magnusson has done an enormous amount of work in setting up the master files and continually updating them with great support from the members of the team. Next year we hope to be able to give a projected publishing date. The availability of newspapers of the past on the internet has made the job a lot easier and quicker. However there is a lot to be done yet especially in cross referencing the data. Rooney Magnusson and Nejat Kok are continuing their work on the 1911-1920 lists and hopefully we will be getting an update in the near future. There are a number of major international competitions next year, and these could be an ideal opportunity for an ATFS meeting, particularly the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA in July and/or the European Championships in Zurich, Switzerland, in August. If we have enough interested members to have a quorum we can start planning now. Please let me or our secretary know if you have plans on being in Zurich. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very happy Festive Season and a healthy and peaceful 2014. Kindest regards, Paul Ed: Paul and his wife Robyn have just embarked on a life sea change and have moved to a lovely seaside town. His new mailing address is listed below.. FROM THE SECRETARY Member Passings. Unfortunately our ranks have been thinned further over the past few months with the untimely passing of Lionel Peters (GB), Gert le Roux (SAF) and Milan Skocovsky (Cze) . Website. The new website has been up and running for a number of months now and it is pleasing to see that many members have taken the opportunity to access the members area. It is a slow process, but I am gradually adding content to the members area, particularly historical content. All members should have received an email with their Username and system generated Password that allows access to the Members-only section. If you are having difficulties accessing the website, please don't hesitate to contact me. I have set up some discussion boards, and more topics can easily be added, and it would be great if members started some discussions and we saw interaction between our widely dispersed membership. As I mentioned in the last Bulletin, I would like to make the website more interactive and "interesting" for the general public, so, if you have any new/recent publications that you would like to advertise, please send along the details, with an image of the front cover, and I'll include on the website. Also, if members would like their website listed, with a link, again please send me the details. And on the matter of member websites, I am investigating the idea of the ATFS providing hosting of members website as an added benefit your membership. Further details to follow early next year. World Junior Championships 2014. Several US ATFS members are interested in organizing a meeting/social gathering of visiting members at next year's IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in mid-July. If you've previously attended a World Junior meet, or have ever enjoyed athletics in Eugene, you'll want to be there. If you haven't yet experienced the famous Hayward Field atmosphere, this will be an excellent reason to do so. As mentioned by our President, if you are intending attending this meet please drop me an email of your intentions. TREASURER'S REPORT As of 31 October, our ATFS accounts showed a balance of 77,152.25 USD. This total includes all Euros previously held as cash, which were converted to dollars prior to my move to California. Another 1150 Euros remain in our PayPal account. At current conversion rates, this brings total ATFS assets to 78,715.97 USD. Subscription notices for 2014 will be sent in late January. Dues will remain at 25 Euros/$32 USD. Please note that wire transfer fees for US banks have increased (at our end, not yours), to the extent that it is no longer reasonable to send your subscriptions in this manner: More than $20 of every $32 remittance is removed by the banks. So we encourage you to use a Paypal account (www.paypal.com), which is free to you, or to send cash (preferably in a registered letter). Best wishes to all. Ed: Please note that Tom and his wife Julie have relocated to the wonderful wine country in California and have a new postal address that is listed below. MEMBER MENTIONS In Memoriam Lionel Peters. Long time ATFS Member Lionel Peters (GB) passed away on the 18th July 28 at the age of 78 after a long illness. Born on the 15th May 193, Lionel was a chartered accountant by profession and had a wide range of interests apart from athletics, including chess, theatre, cinema, opera and jazz. He joined the ATFS in the 1980's and, frustrated by the paucity of junior results in the various athletics publications he started publishing World Junior Athletics News from January 1994 and following this success established a website for junior results, etc., in 1999. Unfortunately he suffered a severe leg injury after a fall at the 1999 World Junior Cross Country Championships which affected his health and forced him to scale back his work. Many of the top athletes of the current era first gained a mention in one of Lionel's publications. Lionel made a strong contribution to the sport's documentation of statistics and historical material with the compilation and publication of numerous annuals and other booklets during a 20-year period from the mid-1980s. Abbreviated from a tribute by Mel Watman. Gert Le Roux. Former Executive Committee member Gert Le Roux (South Africa) pasted away on the 17th August 2013. Born in 1935, Gert started his working career as a reporter for the South African Broadcasting Commission before taking on sports reporting roles with the Die Transvaler, and from 1962 to 1971 at Dagbreek en Sondagnuus (he was Sports Editor for six years). He took on the full-time role of Secretary of the South African AAU in December 1971 and steered the sport during some of the most decisive and trying times in its history, retiring in 1994. In 1995 he was honored by the IAAF with the "Veterans of the IAAF Award". Until his failing health in 2010 forced him to reduce his activities, he was involved for some 50 consecutive years in the publication of the SA Athletics Annual, the publication of the SA Athletics Statisticians (SAAS), of which he was the Editor for many years. He served on the ATFS Executive Committee for a number of years providing statistics and information on track and field in his homeland. Although originally from a rugby background, Gert always had a soft spot for athletics and this love for the sport was ignited when he reported on the then World Record performance by Gert Potgieter in the 440yards Hurdles (49.3) at the SA Championships in Bloomfontein in 1960. Thus began a life-long association with track and field. Gert is survived by his two sons and three grandchildren. Thanks to Riel Hauman for providing the above tribute. Milan Skocovsky. A member of the ATFS since 1968, Milan Skocovsky (Cze) passed away unexpectedly on November 24th at the age of 76. Born on 25 February 1937 in Prerov, Milan spent a lifetime working as a teacher in Nymburk and later in Parting. Between 1967-1969 he was chairman of the club Lokomotiva Nymburk, becoming an ATFS member in 1968 and commenced his yearly work on the World Junior performances in 1973 and attended some eight World Junior Championships. He was a founding member of the Czechoslovakia Association of Athletics Statisticians and was intimately involved in the production of their yearly ranking lists. From 1973 he was a member of Technical Committee Czech Athletics Federation and for many years worked as a senior manager extraleague women. He was co-author of a small encyclopedia of athletics and Who Was Who in the Czech athletics.