January 2015 Writers of America In this issue:

(Founded June 7, 1973)

PRESIDENT Jack Pfeifer, 6129 N. Lovely St., Portland, OR 97203. Office/home: 917- 579-5392. Email: P. 2 President’s Message [email protected] P. 3 TAFWA/Armory Foundation Book Award Finalists VICE PRESIDENT Doug Binder. Email: P.4 TAFWA/Bud Greenspan Documentary Award Finalists [email protected]. P. 5 Cheryl Treworgy Update @ garycohenrunning.com Phone: 503-913-4191. P. 8 Qatar Fills the Stands with Paid Fans TREASURER Tom Casacky, P.O. Box P. 10 Kristi Anderson, Masters Runner, Bewildered Over 4288, Napa, CA 94558. Phone: 818-321-3234. Drug Suspension Email: [email protected] P. 12 Update on Liz McColgan-Nuttall SECRETARY/ P. 14 USC Crowd Funds for Zamperini Scholarship AWARDS CHAIR Don Kopriva, 5327 New- P. 15 Catching Up With port Drive, Lisle IL 60532. Home: 630-960-3049. P. 20 Jeff Mason, Boulder Director, Sued Cell: 630-712-2710. P. 21 Drummond Gets 8 Year Doping Suspension Email: donkopriva777@ aol.com P. 23 Bob Gourley Receives the National Throws Coach Award

NEWSLETTER EDITOR P. 24 FAST Compilation by Rey O’Neal: NCAA Division I Kim Spir, University of Portland, 5000 N. Finalists Top Eight - Organization of Eastern Willamette Blvd., Caribbean States Portland, OR 97203. Work: 503-943-7314. P. 26 Elfriede Prefontaine Dies at Age 88 Email: kim.spir@gmail. com P. 29 Guor Marial Suspended by South P. 30 Coach Speaks Out FAST Dave Johnson. Email: P. 33 Excerpt from “A Ride for Robert” by Mark Cullen [email protected] Phone: 215-898-6145. P. 37 Partial Fixtures List

WEBMASTER Michael McLaughlin. Email: supamac@comcast. net. Phone: 815-529- 8454. President’s Message

Welcome to a new year and a new track season. This is a year for an Outdoor World Championships () but no Indoor, and the beginning of the buildup to the next Olympics, now a year and a half away in Rio, the first Games ever held in South America.

This year’s NCAA Indoor Championships will be in Fayetteville, Ark., while the USA Indoor Nationals have ended their run in Albuquerque and return to the Reggie Lewis Center in .

Outdoors, the NCAA meet continues in Eugene, and the Nationals will be there as well, two weeks later. Hayward Field will have the Prefontaine meet in late June followed by the NCAA and the USATF all in a four-week period. A year later, it will be Pre, NCAA and Eugene’s third consecutive Olympic Tri- als.

Dues Your TAFWA annual dues of $30 are now due for the 2015 calendar year. These are payable to TAFWA c/o our treasurer, Tom Casacky, by Paypal or by mailing Tom a check.

We have discussed having a multiyear deal on dues and will get a plan along these lines ready for 2016.

NYC Event We still plan to have a TAFWA Dinner at Coogan’s Restaurant, around the corner from the Armory in Upper Manhattan, on Thursday evening, Feb. 12, from 6 to 8 PM, two days prior to the 108th Millrose Games.

We plan to present four awards at this get-together: our two Book awards, presented by Peter Walsh, the proprietor of Coogan’s; our first Broadcasting Award, named for the pioneering broadcaster H.D. Thoreau, and our award for documentary film, the Bud Greenspan Award, presented by Nancy Beffa, Bud’s longtime collaborator.

A fifth award, to be given for online video work, will be delayed until Spring as we continue to search for appropriate nominees. Such nominations should be sent to Saudia Mitchell, an experienced sports videographer based in New York.

An invitation will be sent out soon by email to New York-area members. Based on the response, we will have either a buffet dinner for the entire back room of Coogan’s or, if the response is modest, a more private event in that same room. Either way, we plan to go forward on that day and time.

In its 40-plus years, TAFWA has never held an event in -- a city that has never hosted the NCAA Championships, indoors or out, and has not hosted an Olympic Trials in 50 years.

FAST TAFWA is also home to FAST – the Federation of American Statisticians of Track – and with this in mind, we are happy to print occasional statistical projects in the Newsletter. One such project is print- ed here this month, from our good friend Rey O’Neal, a longtime ATFS member and Caribbean expert from the British Virgin Islands who was on hand last summer at Hayward Field for the World Juniors. Feel free to send in your FAST submissions for consideration.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 2 - January 2015 All-Time World Indoor List Member Ed Gordon’s annual World All-Time Indoor Lists publication has now been added to the TAFWA website. The 2015 edition can be accessed under the TAFWA menu item that will only be view- able once a member has accessed the website.

Facebook Our intrepid webmaster Michael McLaughlin has created a Facebook page: Track and Field Writers of America - where members can “Like” the page and interact with other members.

Finalists for the Armory Foundation Book Award and the Bud Greenspan Documentary Award Announced Peter Walsh, proprietor of Coogan’s has announed the five finalists for theArmory Foundation Book Award to be presented at Coogan’s in New York City on Thursday, February 12, 2015: FROM BROOKLYN TO THE OLYMPICS The Hall of Fame Career of Auburn Track Coach Al Rosen By Craig Darch New South Books Montgomery AL www.newsouthbooks.com

WHAT MAKES OLGA RUN? The mystery of the 90-something Track Star and what she can teach about living longer, happier lives. By Bruce Grierson Henry Holt&Co. New York www.henryholt.com

A SPECTACULAR LEAP Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century America By Jennifer H. Lansbury The Press Fayetteville www.uapress.com

RUNNING AFTER PREFONTAINE A Memoir By Scott F. Parker Inside The Curtain Press scottfparker.BlogSpot.com

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 3 - January 2015

WHEN RUNNING WAS YOUNG AND SO WERE WE Collected Works of a Sportswriter from the Golden Age of American Running By Jack D. Welch D&B Publishing

Nancy Beffa, Cappy Productions, has announed the five finalists for theBud Greenspan Documentary Award to be presented at Coogan’s in New York City on Thursday, February 12, 2015:

Run Free The True Story of Caballo Blanco Director: Sterling Noren Producers: Maria Walton, Sterling Noren, Leslie Gaines, Neather Nicholson

10 Gold Medals Director & Producer: James Guardina

Transcend Directors: Michael Del Monte, Tad Munnings Producers: Michael Del Monte, Scott Kerry, Tad Munnings

100 Seconds to Beat the World: The David Rudisha Story Directors & Producers: Edward Sunderland and Jim De Zoete

4-Minute Mile Director: Charles-Olivier Michaud Produced by Howard Burd, Micah Sparks, Deborah Moore, Mark DiSalle and Jennifer Reibman.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 4 - January 2015 http://www.garycohen- running.com/Interviews/ Bridges.aspx

Cheryl Bridges Treworgy — December, 2014

Cheryl Bridges Treworgy is best known for winning the 1971 Culver City Marathon in a World Record time of 2:49:40. She is the first woman to break 2:50:00. Cheryl represented the five times at the World Cross Country Championships with a best finish of fourth place in 1969. Truly one of the pioneers of women’s distance running, she received possibly the first women’s athletic scholarship from any university to Indiana State in 1966, though it was technically classified as a ‘Talented Student Scholarship.’ At the inaugural women’s collegiate D.G.W.S. (Division for Girls and Women’s Sports) Championships held in Texas in 1969, Cheryl won the mile and half mile and anchored the winning medley relay team in leading Indiana State’s team of only four women to a second place team finish. She raced at a time when young women had little opportunity to run and race in high school and college. Cheryl started running for fitness in high school and was prevented by her local school board from training or racing with the boys. The legendary Bill Dellinger, who was Steve Prefontaine’s coach, guided her to her World Record marathon. Cheryl was inducted into the Indiana State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1984, before her more celebrated ISU alumnus, Larry Bird. She is a professional photographer for her own company, Pretty Sporty, and was recognized in 2010 as Track and Field Writers of America Photographer of the year. Cheryl is the mother of , one of America’s top distance runners, who has a best marathon time of 2:21:14. She resides in Graham, North Carolina with her husband, John. Cheryl was gracious to spend two hours on the telephone for this interview.

GCR: You had your running heyday back in the 1960s and 1970s. For anyone under the age of 40 or 45, it is difficult to fathom the lack of opportunities that girls and women had to compete in sports until sometime in the mid-1970s. What it was like for you as a teenager starting to run in the 1960s and how decide to start running? CT What has to be realized with me is that it wasn’t so much that I wanted to be a runner as it was that I wanted to transform my body. That was the whole idea and running happened to be the activity that was accessible. Back in the sixties acceptable sports for girls were being on a swim team, playing tennis, doing gymnastics or ice skating. You just did not see people out running on the streets, period. There were high school teams that were all boys. AAU was available for girls, but that was in the summer and wasn’t associated with the schools at all. For a lot of it, running was in age group clubs. Nothing was available in high school in the Midwest. I had read an article in the Sunday supplement to our newspaper by Bill Bowerman. He talked about how he and his wife had travelled to New Zealand and Australia and there were people hiking and walk-jogging. He discussed the benefits. I bought in that this was some- thing I could do and that I didn’t need anyone else to do it. So I thought

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 5 - January 2015 I’d give this shot. For me it started out as just wanting to have a body like the gal I idolized, Maddie Ellis, who was a swimmer. That’s where it all started.

GCR: What were the opportunities to train and race at your high school? CT I was fortunate that I had a Social Studies teacher, Charlie Riley, who was coach of the cross country team and track team. I don’t know how it even came about, maybe I asked him about training or he saw me on the track after band practice, and he asked if I was interested in running. Back in the 1960s women weren’t very forceful in public. We really didn’t push the envelope much. We were expected to follow the same path that our mothers did – you know, a get married, have kids and take care of the house concept.

GCR: When I interviewed Ruth Wysocki she mentioned that there wasn’t a girls track team at her school so she ran with the boys track team, boys cross country team and did some club running. Were you on a similar path? CT Yes, and Ruth is quite a bit younger than me because I remember her as a 12 year old in some races. For me, Mr. Riley had invited me to come out and run with the boys, but the School Board prevented me from doing so. They had a big meeting to ban me from being able to train with the boys, so I pretty much had to run by my- self. In the summer I hooked up with a club and one of the coaches took interest in me and continued to coach me my senior year. But that first year I was basically out there on my own.

GCR: There are limited archives of racing information from back then, but there were the founda- tions for girls’ competitions. How did the opportunities to race evolve while you were in high school? CT I entered my first cross country nationals and went to the meet in Cambridge. I think I got seventh place the first year. I loved cross country. That’s always been the one thing I was really good at as opposed to track. I wasn’t quite as good because there weren’t any barriers. I think I would have been a good steeplechaser. I was able to train with my coach. There were no girls to train with. Pretty much my whole career I was training by myself.

GCR: Did he have you doing mainly steady runs or did he include intervals and fartlek running? CT I did all of that. He was knowledgeable and had been a runner at Indiana State. He knew what he was doing and I benefited from that. There was no feeder system so I was coming out non-athletic other than I wanted to lose weight, and the weight did come off. There was an athlete underneath but it took some time for the body to convert to something that was fit enough to maintain and compete. My early trails weren’t good but I got better.

GCR: What were some highlight races in high school and what kind of times were you running? CT My times were terrible. I think when I hit a 2:30 for 800 meters I was thrilled. 800 meters was about it when I started. Then a mile was as long as they would let us run forever. When we finally moved up to the mile it was hard to even find anyone who would run it. It’s like when we first started with 10k races, we had to -re cruit people. It was like that with the mile back then. It was too long. Everyone was a sprinter back then. If you weren’t a sprinter it was like, ‘What are you doing here?’ My whole freshman year in college I ran in high school boys cross country meets. We had to make it okay with all of the other coaches. They made me wait until five seconds after the gun went off to start running because they didn’t think I knew what I was doing and I would get in the way. But I never got worse than third place.

GCR: What were you planning to do as far as collegiate studies and athletics and how did you be- come the first female athlete in the U.S. to receive an athletic scholarship to a public university from Indiana State? CT Larry Bridges was my club coach who had attended Indiana State. He had coached me through the club and then he coached me my senior year in high school. He had this bright idea that I could get a scholarship. Well, no one was giving athletic scholarships to women in 1966. But we tried it anyway. We pitched it at Ball State and Indiana State. Fortunately, Dr. Eleanor St. John, who was the head of the Physical Education Depart- ment at Indiana State, told us about a ‘Talented Student Scholarship’ and that it was sort of a slush fund for students that weren’t earmarked for any one talent. You could be good at anything – violin – so that’s where the TAFWA Newsletter - Page 6 - January 2015 money came from to give me a partial scholarship. GCR: So it wasn’t technically an athletic scholarship, though with your running talent that is how it was used. CT Dr. St. John was really forward thinking as she was with a group of women who put together the first women’s collegiate track and field championship in 1969 at San Marcos, Texas.

GCR: So when you were first running at Indiana State in what type of meets were you competing? CT I had to run in AAU age group meets. I would go to St. Louis, Cleveland or up to Michigan and compete wherever there were teams. We always had to hope that one of the age-groupers would go out of her age group and jump up to the Open Division to race me as I was the only Open racer. We got Francie Krieger-Johnson to run the mile against me and I think I was the only runner to ever beat her on Michigan soil. But it wasn’t at a distance she relished.

GCR: You mentioned the inaugural women’s collegiate D.G.W.S. (Division for Girls and Women’s Sports) Championships held in Texas in 1969. You won the mile and half mile and anchored the win- ning medley relay team. Were there a lot of schools there and was it a large event? CT There were 24 teams and most were from Texas. Terry Crawford from Tennessee and I had raced at many AAU meets. We plotted to run different events so that we wouldn’t get second places. We worked it out so I could run mine and she could run hers.

GCR: You led the Indiana State women’s track team to a second-place finish – was the team camara- derie an added bonus to your individual success? And what stands out more, the team or individual results? CT The great thing was the team Indiana State sent was only four girls. We all tripled and as a team we did tie for second. I was the oldest one on the team at twenty-one or close to it. I had also travelled the most so I was the chaperone. The other girls had been recruited through an open call. They had maybe been in physical education in high school. I think our hurdler also threw the shot put and was on the relay. Everyone did every- thing. It was strange and didn’t come together until my senior year. For all the out-of-town competitions I went alone and they stayed locally. When we got to the national meet I was kind of like the mother hen and tried to help my teammates. But when a meet was being put on for the first time you don’t know what the schedule would be like. It was pretty exciting to tie for second place with just the four of us.

GCR: Do you remember anything from the actual competitions? CT It was long ago and I don’t recall at all. My times weren’t spectacular. All I remember is that it was darn hot!

MORE FROM THIS INTERVIEW CAN BE FOUND AT http://www.garycohenrunning.com/Interviews/Bridges.aspx

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 7 - January 2015 http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8c1c6f 18ee7f4caaa6dec1f675e2db6f/qatar- migrant-workers-paid-be-sports-fans

In Qatar, migrant workers paid to be sports ‘fans’

By JOHN LEICESTER  Dec. 17, 2014 3:45 AM ES

A man whips up a crowd which included migrant workers from Africa and Asia who said they were paid...

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The men grappled with each other to board the quickly fill- ing bus. Others wriggled in through the windows, scaling the outside, using the large wheels as footholds and leaving scuff-marks on the white exterior with their shoes.

These weren’t refugees fleeing disaster. They were migrant workers in 2022 World Cup host Qatar, fighting to earn a few dollars. The job: Pretend to be a sports fan.

Qataris boast they’re mad for sports. The ruling emir of the oil-and-gas rich Gulf nation is so fond of football he bought Saint-Germain, now France’s powerhouse team. Lobbying World Cup organizer FIFA in 2010, his royal mother said: “For us, football is not just a mere game or a sport among many. It is THE sport.” Pitching successfully in November to track and field’s governing body to host its world championships in 2019, Qatar bid presenter Aphrodite Moschoudi said: “Qatar has a true passion for sports. Everything in our country revolves around sport.”

Or, when passion is lacking, around money.

When the world’s second-richest people per capita can’t find time or be bothered to fill their sports arenas, -mi grant workers are paid to take their place.

Thirty Qatar riyals — equivalent to $8 — won’t buy a beer in the luxury waterside hotel in Doha, the capital, where Qatari movers-and-shakers unwind. But for this pittance, workers from Africa and Asia under blinding sun in the Doha industrial zone where they’re housed and surround a still-moving bus like bees on honey. They sit through volleyball, handball and football, applaud to order, do the wave with no enthusiasm and even dress up in white robes and head-scarves as Qataris, to plump up “home” crowds.

The Associated Press squeezed aboard one of three buses that ferried about 150 workers, through dense traffic of luxury cars and past luxury villas they’ll never be able to afford, to be fake fans at the Qatar Open of interna- tional beach volleyball in November.

The FIVB, volleyball’s governing body, trumpeted on its website that the tournament, part of its World Tour, “brought out the crowds.” But migrants from Ghana, Kenya, Nepal and elsewhere, who work in Qatar as bus and taxi drivers for the state-owned transport company and for other employers, told the AP they were there for money, not volleyball. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 8 - January 2015 Word of payment filtered around their crowded dormitories. At 2:30 p.m., clumps of men on their off-day gath- ered outside, inhaling dust stirred up by passing forklifts and trucks.

Someone spotted the first bus far down the street that cuts through the bleak-scape of construction and piled dirt. The bus filled instantly. A second and third bus — and more frantic scrambling — followed. Breathing heavily, men squeezed into seats, three on one side of the aisle, two on the other. There were no safety belts and the ceiling fans didn’t turn. One man without a seat squatted on the floor. To shouts of “get down!” he made himself small when a policeman was spotted on the journey. One by one, from memory, the men reeled off their employee numbers — no names — to a man who methodically shuffled down the aisle, jotting down the details on a crumpled piece of paper. This ensured he’d later know who to pay, workers said.

At the Al Gharafa Sports Club, we disembarked and formed a line. An official in Qatari robes counted us in, with taps on the shoulder. French volleyballers Edouard Rowlandson and Youssef Krou were winning their bronze- medal match as we filled seats, making the arena appear almost full.

“Bizarre,” Rowlandson said when told of the hired spectators. “But we prefer that to playing in front of nobody.” Ahmed al-Sheebani, executive secretary of the Qatar Volleyball Association, rebuffed the AP’s questions, reach- ing over to switch off this reporter’s voice recorder.

Reached later by phone, FIVB media director Richard Baker thanked the AP for making it aware of the fake fans and said the federation will “seek clarification” from Qatari organizers.

“It’s news to us,” he said.

But not to Qatar’s government. A survey of 1,079 Qatar residents published this January by the Ministry of De- velopment Planning and Statistics suggested that paid fans may be turning Qataris off sport. The ministry said two-thirds of Qataris surveyed did not attend any football matches during the previous season and two-thirds of respondents cited “the spread of paid fans” as a “significant reason” keeping audiences away. At the volleyball, some for-hire spectators were offered less than others. Security guards and office boys from Kenya said a prom- ise of 20 riyals ($5.50) each drew 40 people onto their bus. A Nigerian manservant said he, too, was getting just 20.

Numerous workers said they regularly make up numbers at sports events. Qatar league football games pay 20 or 25 riyals, they said. A Kenyan said he made 50 riyals at handball. An added bonus: the volleyball arena had free Wi-Fi, allowing workers to get news and emails from home. They pulled out smartphones, ignoring a crowd organizer waving a plastic hand who urged them to clap to Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.”

Thirty riyals buys food for three days when you’re eating just once a day to save money for families back home, workers said. And watching sports, some said, is less tedious than whiling away off-duty hours in Doha’s back- of-beyond industrial zone.

“Shaking my body all over ... being in the crowd and shouting and dancing” was great fun for Adu, a trainee bus driver from Ghana who gave just his first name.

“Being there and getting paid is a plus for me.”

Afterward, the transport company workers waited nearly three hours in the dark, on barren land near the arena, for return buses. Contacted separately later by phone, three of them confirmed they got 30 riyals each in cash, either on the bus back or in their dormitories.

On an hourly basis, that came out at just over $1 per hour.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 9 - January 2015 http://masterstrack.com/2014/12/33461/

Kristi Anderson ‘bewildered’ over yearlong drug suspension

Kristi at work.

In its news release on Kristi Anderson’s suspension, USADA called her a track and field athlete. Not so. The 51-year-old mountain runner in Colorado says she’s never competed in a masters track meet. Had she been a part of our game, she might have shared our awareness about banned substances and how to get permission to use them for medical reasons. In any case, she was blindsided by the fallout from her drug test at an August race. She shared her thoughts (often with a great sense of humor) in a quickie Q&A conducted via email Christmas Eve. Kristi runs a physical therapy shop near her home in Longmont. Her case illustrates (again) what hap- pens when a one-size-fits-all antidoping system bumps up against age-groupers with legitimate medical needs. Ask Kathy Jager.

Kristi says she won’t let competition ban cramp her Colorado running plans.

Masterstrack.com: What was your reaction to the positive test at the Pikes Peak Marathon?

Kristi Anderson: My reaction: a series of emotions ranging from fear to bewilderment to amusement — mostly fear. “Why are they after me?” “Oh my God, do I have to go on Oprah?”

Were you aware of the TUE process going into the race?

I have never heard of the TUE process. I’m not an elite runner; I’m a middle-aged mom and business owner who loves to run in the mountains.

What’s your medical need for DHEA?

I saw a doctor for adrenal fatigue and menopausal symptoms. (I’m 51.) A hormonal panel showed low DHEA, practically nonexistent testosterone and low estrogen. Despite taking the dose recommended, my levels remain low; there is no competitive advantage from my perspective.

Did you consider fighting the suspension? If not, why not?

I did not consider fighting the suspension. The protocol for fighting it seemed daunting and the suspension at any length doesn’t affect my aspirations as a runner.

How does your suspension affect your competition plans?

The suspension has no effect on my future plans in any way. My enjoyment lies in experiencing the trails either solo or within the friendly trail running community. I like the trail running races because of their low key nature and the perk of having festive water stations in crazy remote places. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 10 - January 2015 How is your case being covered locally? Snark or sympathy?

It’s too soon to tell how the local media will treat my case. The USADA press release felt like a slap in the face. I have received supportive phone calls and comments to my defense on the local trail running thread so far. One person expressed shock on what he called a “random assault” on my character. People are entitled to their opin- ions and some people are more prone to judge than others. I accept the fact that I have no control over that. What do you want your fellow masters runners to know about your case? What you’ve learned from this ordeal? I still feel a combination of horror and amusement about this experience. I am bewildered as to why USADA would waste their time and resources on me. I take DHEA to support my health and well-being and will continue to take it for those reasons. Avoiding the competitive events that ban this substance is not an issue for me. The Pikes Peak Marathon race director completely understood my situation and invited me back to his race. Me again: Kristi also notes: “I am not a member of USATF. Does that matter? I don’t know why USADA was at Pikes Peak Marathon. The Ascent, on Saturday, was part of a team world competition. The marathon was a low key, though very challenging, event. USADA says they can come to my house now. I feel like I’ve been abducted by the circus.”

So how can a non-USATF member be suspended by USADA? That’s like a non-Catholic being excommunicated. Crazy.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 11 - January 2015 http://www.theguardian.com/ sport/2014/dec/20/liz-mccol- gan-nuttal-athletics-world- championships-qatar

Liz McColgan-Nuttall is introducing girls in Qatar to the joys of running

The former 10,000m world champion had an enthusiastic response when she answered the state’s call to pro- duce international talent

Liz McColgan-Nuttall after winning the 10,000m at the world championships in 1991, she is now training girls in Qatar. Photograph: Itsuo Inouye/AP

Qatar has always been more famous for buying in athletes, than producing them. But on securing some of the world’s biggest sporting events, from the World Cup 2022 to the championships in 2019, the richest nation in the world per capita is now set on developing its own talent. To do so, the Qatar Athletics Federation has hired one of Britain’s best-known distance runners in Liz McColgan-Nuttall to create a future for women’s endurance running in Qatar.

The former 10,000m world champion originally relocated to Qatar to be with her new husband, British Athlet- ics’ former head of endurance, , who now fulfils the same job at the Aspire Academy that produced Qatar’s one internationally successful athlete, Mutaz Essa Barshim. It is the success of Barshim, the world indoor high jump champion who has also won world silver and Olympic bronze medals, that provides the template as well as the hope for a Qatari sporting legacy. Only four female ath- letes represented the nation at London 2012; McColgan-Nuttall has been selected as the woman to change that by identifying and nurturing potential endurance talent. First she has to find it and that is no easy task.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 12 - January 2015 The Scot describes Qatar as having a “very inexperienced [sporting] culture”, where running itself is a new phe- nomenon for the girls she meets on school visits. “They’ve never run. They don’t play sport. The boys maybe play football but the girls don’t do anything. So they really, really enjoy it. It’s something so new to them.

“It’s amazing when you start coaching because they get all worried. They’ve never been out of breath before. I need to explain to them that it’s normal. Once you do that and they understand that it’s normal they want to do it again. Or if they get tired and tight legs, and they think: ‘Oh, I’ve hurt myself,’ and it’s because they don’t know the feelings of exercise. It’s just about giving them the confidence to do it, that it’s normal they can train through it. Once you explain it they say: ‘OK then, I’m not having a heart attack ...’ That’s the sort of thing you go through.”

McColgan-Nuttall’s remit is to scour schools for potential talent to compete – rather than win a medal – in 2019.

“There’s no medallists for 2019. It’s more about just finding someone who has the talent to take part. Girls have not been encouraged to exercise in the past. On top of that I’m trying to develop girls’ running clubs because there’s nothing set up for them as yet.” The Scot is starting from scratch with an entire grassroots structure for girls’ endurance running. “There’s nothing,” she says. “When the senior groups get going, in the next five to 10 years hopefully you’ll have good athletes in the team but it’s going to take time to build up.”

The girls, aged nine and upwards, are more enthusiastic than the boys about their new opportunities. But there are cultural mind-sets to combat. Female endurance runners tend to wear minimal clothing to aid movement but like the Qatar women’s basketball team that withdrew from the Asian Games in September over the no hijab ruling, it can be challenging to balance religious and sporting requirements. “Because of the religion they’ve got a lot of problems with ladies and needing to cover up, so [in the past] they wouldn’t really attempt [those sports].

“Now they’re just working around it. You see more and more sports becoming more accessible to women and girls. [With endurance running] if you put a pair of tights on and a long-sleeved T-shirt it doesn’t really make a difference. Over the years I’ve also run with tights and T-shirt and you get used to it, it’s quite comfortable, there’s no reason you need to run in a crop top and little bikini briefs.”

Another adjustment for the former Olympic silver medallist was Ramadan. “As a coach you’ve got to work round it and respect the religion in the country. After sundown they can eat, so we just changed things around so they could train at night. It’s all workable.”

Amid the cultural adjustments the biggest change of all came in leaving her daughter, the Olympic athlete Eilish McColgan. McColgan-Nuttall still coaches Eilish, setting training programmes over email and Skype, but the distance became painful when her daughter suffered heart palpitations while visiting Doha in April this year. “It wasn’t nice at all,” says McColgan-Nuttall, who coached Eilish to win the British title and admits she cannot help worrying about her. “She had it genetically. When she was younger she had a little something with it but it’s never come back to bother her until she came out here. I think there’s something always been not quite right with it but it didn’t manifest itself.”

Eilish trains at Loughborough alongside the European cross-country champion, Gemma Steel – coached by her new stepfather, Nuttall – and her mother says she is well drilled in providing feedback on how her body responds. “She knows her body well and I’m confident in what she says. The programme she gets she follows it meticulously, so it kind of works out all right.

“She made the decision that she wants to run. We’ll see where she goes with it. Worst-case scenario she might have an operation for it but at the minute we’re just trying to manage it and allow her to train. She monitors the heart well [with regular ECG tests] and we’re very aware of anything symptomatic – she just changes her pro- gramme but the last couple of months she’s had only one episode so it’s been good.” Eilish plans to compete in

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 13 - January 2015 the indoor season in 2015, and McColgan-Nuttall says her daughter is in “great shape” despite her condition.

One issue McColgan-Nuttall cannot escape, however, is the never-ending flow of negative news stories about Qatar – from human rights organisations condemning World Cup worker fatalities and allegations of corruption in securing the 2022 World Cup to athletes’ fears over the effects of extreme temperatures at global sporting competitions such as the 2019 world athletics championships – all of which have left the tiny Gulf state strug- gling to convince the world about its suitability as a sporting events host. How does McColgan-Nuttall see it?

“I feel with Doha the problems that have been highlighted, they’re actually trying to sort out. There’s a lot of workers over here. For instance, I know a company that goes into the camps and does a sports delivery pro- gramme where they play cricket in the workers’ camps, they also give them free phonecalls, things like that. “Look at [hosting the world championships in 2015], look at the drugs in Rio, the way they flattened the slums. There’s always a down side of where a successful bid is taking place. I think the world championships coming to Doha is great for the sport and it’s great for women in sport because it gives them the opportunity to access it. I think if it does that, that’s half the battle won.”

http://mynewsla.com/education/2014/12/18/usc-crowd- funds-louis-zamperini-scholarship/ USC crowdfunds for Louis Zamperini scholarship

POSTED BY COLLEEN PARK ON DECEMBER 18, 2014

Capture of The Louis Zamperini Endowed Scholarship Campaign site.

USC’s crowdfunding campaign to support the Louis Zamperini Endowed Scholarship,honoring the late Trojan track star and World War II hero, raised over $100,000 in its first week.

The campaign kicked off on Nov. 29 and has raised $167,434 of its $500,000 goal as of Thursday, with contribu- TAFWA Newsletter - Page 14 - January 2015 tions by 231 donors.

The annual scholarship will be given to a male or female track and field athlete “who best epitomizes [Zam- perini’s] talents and spirit to receive the same opportunities he received as a USC student,” according to the campaign site.

Zamperini attended USC on a full scholarship and at the age of 19 , was the youngest American to qualify for the 5,000-meter run in the 1936 Summer Olympics.

He was a bombardier in the Army Air Corps in World War II, during which his plane was shot down over the Pacific Ocean in 1943, and he was stranded on a life raft for 47 days before being captured. Zamperini was a prisoner of war for 2 1/2 years, enduring hunger and torture from his Japanese captors.

He died July 2 at the age of 97.

His life story and accomplishments are chronicled in the film “Unbroken,” directed by Angelina Jolie and open- ing in theaters Dec. 25.

Rewards for campaign backers include a Thank You letter from USC Athletic Director Pat Haden, a copy of Lauren Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption,” recognition on the “Louis Zamperini Scholarship Wall” at the USC Track Stadium and an exclusive Louis Zamperini Print. Two people claimed a $1,000 donor prize of VIP Tickets to USC’s Unbroken premiere on Dec. 16.

Gifted at the highest donor level, and yet to be claimed, is a USC Football Helmet, autographed by Head Coach Steve Sarkisian and Haden.

The online crowdfunding campaign is set to close Jan. 31.

— Colleen Park, MyNewsLA.com

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/pro-sports/qa-atlan- ta-track-club-coach-amy-begley/njYZm/

Q&A: Track Club coach Amy Begley Doug Roberson, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | 1:27 p.m. Monday, Dec. 22, 2014

Amy Begley and her little red car travelled a circuitous path to end up in Atlanta as the first full-time coach with the Atlanta Track Club.

She and her husband lived in Atlanta in 2006 before leaving and taking the “southern route” from Atlanta to Oregon for new challenges. They left there and took the “northern route” to Connecticut for more challenges, before taking the car once again along the “eastern route” from Connecticut back to Atlanta.

She said she laughed earlier this month when she drove by the Atlanta dealership from which she bought the car some 114,000 miles ago.

Former Olympic athlete Amy Begley was hired as the Atlanta Track Club’s first coach. (AP) Begley is skilled at more than just driving long distances. A former Olympic athlete, she also good at running long distances and coaching others in numerous disciplines, which is one of the reasons that executive director and the Atlanta Track Club hired her to help each of its 22,000 members accomplish whatever goals they may have, from running a first 5k to competing in the 2020 Olympics. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 15 - January 2015 Begley sat down for a long interview in the club’s offices earlier this month in which she covered everything from why she took the job to how she hopes to help turn the ATC into a full track and field organization.

Q: How did this come together? A: Rich put out a job description to the running com- munity and posted it online. I had a couple of people forward it to me saying this might be something good for you to apply for. I looked at the job description and it’s a lot. It’s becoming a coach for the Atlanta Track Club. It’s redesigning programs for a lot of groups — the 5k women, the marathon and half-marathon for the spring and the fall. It’s also developing a competitive elite team, it’s starting a youth track and field team and it’s putting together new youth camps and clinics.

There are a lot of different components to the job. But what I loved the most is it’s stuff I’ve done my whole life. I started kids camps for cross country and track. I’ve done kids speed and track and field days for YMCAs and schools. I started a non-profit for every body type to teach kids about track and field when they are really little to try to get them to track and field and maybe not to soccer. We do say soccer players make some of the best runners.

I started a women’s local running club in Portland for women who either wanted to qualify for Boston or run their first 5k or 10k. These are women who had never done a training program before so it was their first time doing that.

I coached the distance divas in Oregon and Connecticut, which is a post-collegiate group for kids graduating col- lege and trying to make the next level. I worked with all these different groups but it’s always been an outreach of my main job, which in Connecticut was as a college coach. I was doing all these things when I had time.

Now all these things I love to do is under one job title. It’s an amazing job to have when everything you love is under one roof.

That’s what really drew me to the job is working with all the different ages and populations in running.

Q: How do you judge success? A: That’s hard to do because a lot of people think, “Well she was a fast runner so she expects everyone to hit a certain level.” Not everybody can win, not everybody can make the Olympic teams. There has to be a level of suc- cess for everybody. Sometimes it depends upon time you can spend on it; sometimes it depends upon what your goals are. For some people it’s to qualify for the . For some people it’s just to literally run their first 5k without walking. So whatever their goal is, if we hit that then that’s success.

It’s all about benchmarks. If you don’t sometimes it’s hard to get started if you don’t have those. If we can make those goals and then match people’s commitment level and incentive then I think that’s success.

Also, trying to get more people involved in running from every age group. Trying to get more little kids involved in track and field. Teaching them about the field events they may not know about, there’s the triple jump. All these things kids can get into as they get older.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 16 - January 2015 Teaching them running isn’t just a sport it’s a lifestyle that anybody can start and anybody can begin at any point in your life.

Q: Why running for you? A: When I was a little I did everything: swimming and softball. We would walk our dog around this park called Bixler Lake. Every time we would walk the dog there there would be this woman running around the lake. Every day. After seeing her many times I told my parents, “That looks like fun, I want to run.”

My parents said, “No, not until you are 10.” I was 8 at the time. I think it was because they didn’t want to drive me to one more thing. They were already sitting through swimming. They were already sitting through softball games. I turned 10, my birthday is in January. It’s snowy and wintery. May comes around and I see the woman running around the park again. I say, “I’m 10, you said I can run.” There’s this Mother’s Day 5-mile race in our time. My parents thought, “We’ll put her in this and she’ll never want to race again.” I run the race. They have a water station in the middle off the race. I take my water and I take my two cups. Everyone throws down the cup. I didn’t want to throw them down because I didn’t want to litter in my park. I didn’t know they picked them up. I carried the glasses all the way to the finish. I get done. I’m all sweaty. I loved it.

I got this big red ribbon for being second in my group, which I still have. I take it with me. That’s what I wanted to do. I was one of those weird kids that thought it looked fun. The woman in the park came up to my parents and told them that she would take us to road races and teach us the ropes. That was really fun. I spent the sum- mer going to different road races.

My dad started running, quit smoking and started running because he didn’t want his little girl running by herself. That’s been good.

Q: How important was the goal of putting two ATC athletes on the 2020 Olympic team in your considering this job?

A: One of the big goals and focuses in my life is helping kids make the bridge from college to professional run- ning. Most of our marathoners don’t make the team until they are 28-32. There’s a big gap between the ages of 22 and 28. Our 10ks are 28-32, our 5k team is a little bit younger, probably 25-30. But then our 800-1500, they are a little bit younger. So there’s this gap between when they graduate college and when they are mature enough and good enough to make the Olympic team. We lose a lot of kids in that gap because there’s not this support.

When I came out of college, my husband and I got married before my fifth year. There were only two clubs at that time. There was the Hansons Group in Michigan, which was for men. And there was the Team Minne- sota, which was for women. Minnesota wanted to take me. Hanson wanted to take my husband. Obviously, we weren’t going to separate.

We moved home to Indiana. I brought a couple of the girls with me. The interesting part was when we would tell people I was training for Olympics, they would always ask me, “what’s my real job?” or “when am I going to settle down and have kids?” My husband never got that question. Never. It was OK for men to live five in a room and train. But for women, for whatever reason, that wasn’t OK for us to do. My goal has always been to help women and to give them the support to continue in the sport because there’s not a lot of support for that. Even now, when I was college coaching and applying for college coaching jobs, I would tell the AD and the school what I wanted to do to support women after they graduated.

One school in the Ivy League told me women make a value-based decision to use their degree and not play around with running. To say the least that didn’t go over well with me. The interview didn’t go well after that. A lot of the women when they contact me after they graduate, their parents don’t even understand. For me, it’s been helping and support to kids post-collegiately so that they can stay in the sport.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 17 - January 2015 Rich’s goal of having a man and women on the team in 2020, that’s exciting. But I would say that when I read the job description that’s only 20-25 percent of my job. The other part of my job is getting kids excited about running, bringing them up from little kids and hopefully they stay around and get on the Atlanta Track Club elite team. Hopefully, we can take these kids and mold them. It’s getting people off the couch and running their first 5k. It’s getting women involved in running, helping them to know that it’s OK to take time to take care of themselves. Running is an easy way to do that. And it’s getting people to accomplish their next goal, whether it’s moving from a 5k to a 10k, or a 10k to a 10-miler, or a 10-miler to a marathon. Telling people there is a fun way to do it and helping learn the exercises to do that.

If you do that, if you can get the little kids interested in running, and can get their parents out there, and new people to running, it adds a bigger support system for the elite team that wants to go on. It takes a village in a way. You get all these people into running, excited about running. The elite team then has a massive support system behind them. Right now we have 21,000 members. If we keep increasing, and they get more excited about running and bring more people in, it’s a huge support system.

It really all ties together. My hope is that they Atlanta Track Club elite team will be some of the coaches for the training program, they will be involved so that there will be middle school kids who will watch the TV, and watch NBC and go, “That was my coach!” That gets them excited.

Q: I don’t run. Sell me on lacing up some sneakers and getting out there.

A: Running is one of those things you don’t have to have a gym. It’s finding the right pair of shoes that feel good, that don’t rub in certain places or cause leg injuries. Literally lacing up your shoes and getting out there. It’s run- ning in morning as the sun is coming up or before the sun is up. It’s a special time in the morning. Or it is stop- ping in the park on the way home when you get off work, it can be a stress reliever before whatever you have to do the rest of the night, whether it’s walking the dog or whatever the kids need. It’s a sense of accomplishment that is just you.

There are so many different goals you can make, whether it is making it around the block for the first time, or its dropping the pounds the doctor wants you to lose, or it’s getting off high-blood pressure medication, it’s not getting the diabetes the rest of your family has gotten, it’s keeping that weight off. There are so many things running can do for you and everybody is different.

It’s not easy. There’s the kind-of like honeymoon period when you first start a job. With running, I wouldn’t call it a honeymoon period because it’s not a honeymoon period because it’s not exactly fun, but once you get to the point that you start accomplishing the little goals, then you want to start accomplishing the bigger ones. I tell new runners don’t think you’re going to go out and run a mile if you’ve never run one. It’s running a min- ute, walking a minute.

It’s having these concrete goals that you can see and you can hit and feel good about hitting those. Not every- body can win but they can work toward accomplishing the goals they’ve set. There’s competing against yourself sometimes. It’s more fun with people, but it’s something that you can set a goal and go out and do it. At the Atlanta Track Club you can sign up for our training programs and meet people and be able to do it that way.

Q: As an Olympic athlete, how difficult of a challenge do you face as a coach trying to get a male and female into the 2020 games?

A: It can be difficult because only three people make it. Every four years we send between 600-700 athletes for all of the sports. That’s not many people for the U.S. That’s just 700 people. It’s not easy. If we can target the right events and the right people and get them to buy in then anything is possible. There’s some events that I think we might be better at hitting — the 800 meters, 1500 meters, the steeple – right now would be the three that I would push for the most. I definitely think the marathon is another avenue we can pursue. I would like to

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 18 - January 2015 go after the 5k and 10k runners. They will be a little harder sell just because Atlanta is a little hot for training certain periods of the year. The 800- and 1500-meter runners don’t really mind it as much. The 5k and - ners prefer it a little more mild. I think if we can set up the training for them during the year, maybe take them up north during the hottest times, I think we can find the right people. Finding the right people in the right events, we can do that.

Q: How hands on will you be as a coach?

A: Right now, we are just going to try to do the distance events, 800 and above. Probably will even look into some 400 meters. Eventually, toward 2020 we want to have the jumpers and the sprinters and the throwers. We want to be a full track club and not just a distance enclave. I’m hands on, not only with the Atlanta Track Club elite but with the training programs. We’re going to have what we call an A and B schedule. The A schedule will be long run on Monday, work out on Wednesday and work out on Saturday. The B group will be long run on Sunday, work out on Tuesday and Friday.

For Monday, you are talking about meeting with a 5 a.m., 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. group. Wednesday is a really long day. It will probably be 5:30, 6:30, probably an 8 o’clock, 10 o’clock groups. At night it will probably be the same thing with the different groups. Because with the competitive teams we have people with jobs and kids so finding places and times for all of them to meet me will be an interesting challenge. We are trying to work with tracks and locations to give us access because that’s not always easy.

With the training groups, we have a half-marathon training group and a marathon training group starting Jan. 10 and the women’s 5k group starting Jan. 17, those groups will meet Saturdays and Tuesdays and it will be the same thing. There will be 7 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and the afternoon the same thing, we will have a 6 o’clock and 7:30 group at different locations. On Saturday we will have five different locations and my husband and I will rotate among those.

Q: Are you going to have time for everything else? This is a lot.

A: Monday morning will be work outs. Monday afternoon will be in the office. Tuesdays, most of the day is work outs. Wednesday is all day work outs. Thursday is one of the days we don’t have a lot of practice so Thurs- day will be an office day. Friday mornings are workouts and Friday afternoon in the office and Saturdays are all work outs or events. Sunday is my typical day off. Once you get things started it kind of gets going by itself. For example, they’ve already got the training programs ready to go for January, February, March and April. My husband will be an assistant coach when he gets down here in January. Between the two of us it will be divide and conquer.

Q: You said there are 200 members on the team. Do you see that number needing to grow significantly to in- crease the pool of candidates for the Olympics?

A: It depends on funding. Right now we’ve set it at a 200 max with the sponsorship with Mizuno and trying to make sure everybody gets what they need. We don’t want to water it down too much.

Right now, the competitive team as it is won’t change a whole lot in 2015. We will start changing some of the tier systems but for 2015 it will stay what it has always been.

We will leave spots open for the new kids, the new generation we will bring in, the ones we hope are the 2020 hopefuls.

Q: With that 200, I imagine there will be some difficult conversations as you try to bring in more athletes to increase the competitiveness.

A: Yes, hopefully bringing in anywhere from 4-8 new kids this year. Most won’t graduate until May or June so it

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 19 - January 2015 will be six months of recruiting to see which are the best kids to bring in. In January we won’t have a full 200. There will be some tough conversations. Right now, of the 200 they have there are people who just show up when it’s convenient. They aren’t committed or dedicated. They just think it’s fun to be a part of something.

From now it will be a little bit different. Some people may decide on their own that this is something they don’t want to do anymore. http://www.runnersworld.com/races/da-seeks-200000-from-boulder-marathon-director

DA Seeks $200,000 from Boulder Marathon Director Suit would also block Jeff Mason from staging future races. By Peter Gambaccini | Published December 24, 2014

Boulder Marathon Director Jeff Mason is the target of a civil lawsuit filed Thursday seeking to recover nearly $200,000 in entry fees from two canceled and to bar him from staging such races in the future, the Boulder Daily Camera reports. The suit has been filed by the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office in -Colo rado.

Mason and his company, Boulder Marathon LLC, collected entry fees for a marathon scheduled for October 5, 2014 despite missing a deadline to get permits from state and local police and other Boulder agencies, the suit alleges.Mason canceled the marathon 16 days before the scheduled race date.

District Attorney Stan Garnett charges that Mason told runners he would use their entry fees from canceled races in 2013 and 2014 for a future marathon but that he lacked the financial reserves to do so. Although 1,839 signed up for the two races and Mason collected $198,891 in fees, the District Attorney’s office asserts that Mason’s and the marathon’s bank accounts, on various occasions, had negative balances or sums of less than $1,000, the Boulder Daily Camerareports.

Mason postponed the 2013 marathon due to severe local flooding in Boulder and sent a letter to registrants say- ing it would be rescheduled that fall, but he ultimately canceled it. Offering no refunds, he said he would apply entry fees toward the 2014 marathon. When he canceled this year’s race, Mason cited “hurdles and challenges in the wake of the [2013] Boulder flood,” as well as the death of a runner at the Boulder Spring on May 4.

At the time of the 2014 cancellation, one runner writing on the marathon’s Facebook page refuted the claim that there was significant residual damage on the race course due to 2013’s flooding; another wrote that the permit issue “makes me wonder if there was ever any intention of holding the marathon.” After this year’s marathon was canceled, a Boulder-area event company, Human Movement Management, said it would put on a free marathon on the race’s scheduled date. That effort fell through when organizers were unable to secure the necessary permits in time.

No criminal charges are sought against Mason, but Garnett hopes to compensate runners by seeking $2,000 for each violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act and up to $10,000 for violations involving an elderly person, for a total not to exceed $500,000, according to the Boulder Daily Camera.

Mason acquired what was previously known as the Boulder Backwoods Marathon in 2007. Michael Blackburn, who said that he had run the race each year since 1999, wrote on the race’s Facebook page, “The event has gone downhill every year since Jeff Mason bought the race.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 20 - January 2015 http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/sprint-coach-ex-usatf-committee-chair-jon-drummond- gets-8-year-doping-ban

Sprint Coach, Ex-USATF Committee Chair Gets 8-Year Doping Ban Olympic gold medalist later coached U.S. record holder .

By Peter Gambaccini; | Image by PhotoRun | Published December 17, 2014

Former sprinter Jon Drummond competing in 2004.

Jon Drummond, a 2000 Olympic 4 x 100-meter relay gold medalist who became chair of USA Track and Field’s Athletes Advisory Council and coached sprinter Tyson Gay, has been banned from track and field for eight years for having “pos- sessed, trafficked, and administered banned performance enhancing substances to an athlete under his care as a coach,” the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced today.

A three-member panel of the American Arbitration Association North American Court of Arbitration for Sport found that Drummond, instead of using his Advi- sory Council position to “protect athletes,” had “failed to act in the manner expected of a coach of athletes in the Olympic Movement .... A coach must be a watchdog when it comes to prohibited substances.”

Drummond’s ineligibility will date from December 17. He cannot coach or advise or train any athletes partici- pating in USATF or IAAF events. He cannot have access to U.S. Olympic Committee Training Centers. Drummond can appeal the decision to the Court of Abitration for Sport, a USADA official told Runner’s World Newswire. It is unclear at this time whether Drummond will appeal.

In addition to Drummond’s USATF committee chair position, he was a relays coach for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. American 100-meter record holder Gay won gold medals in the 100, 200, and 4 x 100 relay at the 2007 World Championships and was a 2012 Olympic 4 x 100 relay silver medalist. He tested positive for a prohibited substance in 2013.

Gay received a reduced ban after reportedly providing useful information to USADA, including the claim that Drummond had injected him with substances containing banned ingredients in 2012. Drummond subsequently filed suit against Gay and USADA CEO Travis Tygart in a Texas civil court.

At the time Drummond’s ban was announced, he was listed on the USATF site as chair of the organization’s Athletes Advisory Council. Drummond’s name was removed a few hours later.

“USATF, including the constituents who years ago elected Mr. Drummond in good faith to serve as chair of the Athletes Advisory Committee, had no knowledge of Mr. Drummond’s activities,” USATF CEO Max Seigel said in a press statement. “We are all deeply disappointed. Mr. Drummond’s tenure as AAC chair ended December 4, 2014. We thank USADA for their work aimed at providing a cleaner sport.”

The full transcript of the arbitration panel’s hearing can be read here.; http://www.usada.org/wp-content/up- loads/AAA-decision-Drummond-December-2014.pdf

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 21 - January 2015 The full news release can be found here: http://www.ustfccca.org/2014/12/featured/inaugural-win- ners-of-excellence-in-communications-award-announced-for-xc.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 22 - January 2015 http://www.ritca.com/veteran-throws-coach-gourley-feted- national-conference/

VETERAN THROWS COACH GOURLEY IS FETED AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE “Around the Oval’’ R.I. Track & Field Foundation

29 Dec. – – Bob Gourley, a longtime throws coach and official, today was presented the Ken Warren Award for Leadership’’ at the annual conference of the National Throws Coaches Assoc. in Dublin, Ohio. Gourley was rec- ognized by the organization for his “outstanding dedication and commitment to the throwing events’’.

A Barrington resident, Gourley has been associated for more than three decades with the weight events, both indoor and spring track seasons. He serves as throws coach at Barrington High School, and has guided numer- ous prep All-American hammer and weight throw athletes, including defending United States weight throw titlist Adam Kelly, a senior from Barrington High.

Gourley is a regular attendee at national clinics, conferences and training events. He’s officiated numerous National Scholastic championships meets, both indoors with the weight throw, and outdoors with the hammer, and is nationally recognized for maintaining weight and hammer performance lists.

Gourley has been inducted into the R.I. Coaches Assoc. Hall of Fame, and has received awards as USATF New England Official of the Year and the National Scholastic Service Award. A Hope High School graduate, he was an Air Force veteran and recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Editor’s note: Coach Gourley is a long-time FAST member.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 23 - January 2015 N.C.A.A. Division 1 Finalists (Top 8) -O.E.C.S. Athletes FAST and ATFS member Rey O’Neal of the British Virgin Islands submitted this compilation of NCAA Outdoor Championships finalists from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. Rey welcomes any commication and can be reached via email at: [email protected] . Anguilla Chantel Malone (Texas) Shara Proctor () Long Jump -5th,2011 Long Jump - 8th 2008,6th 2009,5th 2010 Triple Jump - 6th 2011 Triple Jump- 4th 2009; 3rd 2010 4 x 100m - 5th 2011 4x 400m - 1st 2009;7th 2010 Antigua & Barbuda Brendan Christian (Texas) Dominica 100m - 8th, 2004 Bruce Phillip (Manhattan) 200m - 5th, 2003 400m - 4th 1989 4x 100m - 7th, 2004 4x400m - 4th, 2004 Jerome Romain (Arkansas) Triple Jump -2nd 1994;2nd 1995 Lester Bird (Michigan) Long Jump -4th 1960; 5yh 1961 Dawn Williams (Arkansas-Little Rock) Lester Benjamin () 800m -3rd 1996;2nd 1997 Long Jump - 6th,1985 4X100m - 3rd 1983;1st 1984 Thea LaFond(Maryland) High Jump -8th 2013 Fred Sowerby (Murray St.) 4x 400m-7th,1971 Sean Lambert (Tennessee) Maxwell Peters (Alabama) 100m -4th 2001;6th 2003 Triple Jump -5th 1978;5th,1979 (Louisiana State) Terri Julian (Georgia) 400m -2nd 2001 4x 100m -6th,1985 4x 400m -3rd 2001

Afia Charles (Central Florida) Joel Phillip (Arizona State) 4x100m-3nd,2013 400m -7th 2008 4x 400m - 8th 2010 Ruperta Charles (Howard) 4x400m -5th,1982 Kirani James (Alabama) {Mother of Afia Charles} 400m - 1ST 2010; 1ST 2011

British Virgin Islands Randy Lewis (Wichita State) Dion Crabbe (Mississippi State) Triple Jump -5th 2003 100m -7th,2002 200m - 5th 2002 Keron Francis (Boise State) Javelin Throw - 4TH 2004;3rd 2006 Keita Cline (Minnesota) Long Jump - 8th,1995 Kurt Felix (Boise State) Decathlon -1st,2012 Tahesia Harrigan (Alabama) 100m - 6th 2005;4th 2006 Sherry Fletcher ( Louisiana State) 100m -1st 2007 Ashley Kelly (Illinois) 200m - 4th 2007 400m -8th,2011 4x100m -2nd 2006; 2nd 2007

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 24 - January 2015

Hazel-Ann Regis (Louisiana State) Nathandra John (Texas Christian) 400m -5th 2003; 8th 2004 4x 400m - 8th 2005; 7th 2006 4x 400m -2nd 2003; 1st 2004 St.Lucia Neisha Bernard-Thomas (Louisiana State) Dominic Johnson (Arizona) 800m - 2nd 2003; 1st 2004 Pole Vault-3rd 1996 4x 400m - 2nd 2003; 1st 2004 Decathlon- 6th 1997

Trish Bartholomew( Alabama) Rpnals Promesse (Texas,El Paso) 400m - 7th, 2007;2nd 2008 4x 100m - 7th 1999

Jacinta Bartholomew(Arizona State) Ivan Jean - Marie(Arizona State) Long Jump - 3rd 1988 4x 400m -6th 1995 4x 100m -1st, 1988 4x 400m -3rd 1988 Levern Spencer (Georgia) High Jump -8th 2006; 3rd 2007 Meisue Francis(Louisiana State) 4x 400m -1st 2006 Jeannelle Scheper (South Carolina) High Jump -5th 2013 Kanika Beckles(Texas A & M) 4x 400m - 3rd 2012 Makeba Alcide (Arkansas) Heptathlon - 2nd 2013 St.Kitts and Nevis (Texas Christian) Augustina Charles (Southwest Missouri) 100m -2nd 2001 4x 400m -5th 1999 4x 100m -1st 2001 Vernetta Lesporis (Southwest Missouri) Melville Rogers (Louisiana State 4x 400m - 5th 1999 4x 400m -1st 2006 St.Vincent & the Grenadines Delwayne Delaney (Texas Christian) Michael Williams (U.C.L.A.) 4x 400m -2nd 2006 4X400M - 6th 1992

Diane Dunrod{Francis} (Alabama Thomas Dickson (Ohio State) 400m - 2nd 1990; 4th 2001 4x 400m - 7th 2001 4x 100m - 6th 1990 4x400m -2nd 1990; 4th 1991 Natasha Mayers (Southern Cal) 100m -2nd 2002 Virgil Hodge (Texas Christian) 200m - 1st 2002 200m -7th 2006; 6th 2007 4x100m - 7th 2006; 4th 2007 Kineke Alexander (Iowa) 400m -7th 2005;2nd 2006; 6th 2007;8th 2008 Tiandra Ponteen (Florida) 400m - 5th 2004; 2nd 2005 Yvette Haynes (Rice) Triple Jump - 7th 1992 Valma Bass (Louisiana State) 200m - 5th 2000 4x 400m - 6th 1998

Marecia Pemberton (Florida State) 4x 100m - 6th 2011

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 25 - January 2015 http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index. ssf/2013/07/elfriede_prefontaine_dies_at_a.html

Elfriede Prefontaine dies at age 88; mother of track legend Steve Prefontaine

By The Register-Guard, Eugene on July 18, 2013 at 6:43 AM, updated July 18, 2013 at 6:51 AM

Elfriede Prefontaine and Linda Prefontaine, Steve’s mother and sister, greet runners from Hum- boldt State University in front of Steve’s childhood home during the Prefontaine Memorial race in Coos Bay in 2008.

Some say his toughness and grit and absolute refusal to quit came from her.

“Anyone who knew Elf- riede knew how strong- willed she was — and stubborn,”Prefontaine Classic meet direc- tor Tom Jordan said Wednesday. “Even though she was always soft-spoken and very self-effacing, she had a toughness that Steve had also.”

Elfriede Prefontaine, the mother of the late Steve Prefontaine,an Oregon icon and the man considered by many to be the greatest distance running legend in American track and field history, died Tuesday atPeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, 12 days after suffering a fall at a Eugene assisted living facility. She was 88.

The diminutive woman with a German accent, who stood perhaps 5-foot-1 in her prime, was born in a small vil- lage outside on March 4, 1925, said her daughter, Linda Prefontaine of Eugene.

Elfriede Prefontaine’s only son was 24 when he was killed in a single-car crash near Eugene’s Hendricks Park on May 30, 1975, just hours after winning his 5,000-meters race at Hayward Field. She was only 50 when she lost him.

“It was absolutely devastating,” Linda Prefontaine, 59, recalled Wednesday, her voice cracking over a phone line. “You see him running one night, and then?…?”

Her parents were at the same post-meet party that their son, known simply as “Pre,” attended that night at the home of fellow trackman Geoff Hollister, Linda Prefontaine said. Then they made the drive home to Coos Bay, where Pre’s legend began as a track and cross-country star at Marshfield High School.

The incomprehensible news came the next morning.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 26 - January 2015 “It was crippling to my mother,” Linda Prefontaine said.

How did she cope?

“Gutted it out. She always gutted things out. You just got through it. You powered through it.”

That was her way, her daughter said, the same as it was her son’s way on the track during his brilliant career at the University of Oregon from 1969 to 1973 and during his guttiest race ever, on Sept. 10, 1972, at the Summer Olympics in Munich, in his mother’s native country. With his parents, Elfriede and Ray Prefontaine, watching from the stands, and running against the world’s best in the 5,000 meters, Pre went for the gold with a lap to go. But he had nothing left down the stretch and finished fourth.

Still, Steve Prefontaine brought his mother great joy during his short life, Linda Prefontaine said. He was the hero of an entire state, an entire sport, and only one woman on earth could watch him run and say, “That’s my son.”

“She was extremely proud that this was her son that everyone was making such a big deal about,” Linda Prefon- taine said. Yet, Elfriede Prefontaine also would chastise Pre about quotes attributed to him in the newspapers. “That’s not what I said,” he would tell her. “That’s what those reporters do. They turn things around.”

Less than a month after his death, the first Prefontaine Classic was held at Hayward Field, Jordan recalled Wednesday. Pre’s parents were there. And they were both there the following year, and every year after that, until Ray Prefontaine died in 2004 at age 85, Jordan said.

After her husband died, Elfriede Prefontaine kept attending every year, getting a ride from her home in Coos Bay from Pre’s high school teammate, Bob Huggins.

She kept attending even when she was virtually blind from macular degeneration that struck in the late 1990s, and then from a stroke in 2010 that damaged the visual cortex in the back of her brain, Linda Prefontaine said. She was too ill to attend this year’s Pre Classic, so she and her daughter watched it on TV from the Eugene as- sisted living facility where Elfriede was rehabilitating after heart surgery at RiverBend in April.

“We watched,” Linda Prefontaine said. “She listened.”

Pat Tyson, who was Pre’s teammate and roommate at the UO in the early 1970s, said Pre inherited much of his mother’s personality.

“Obviously, he took a lot from his father. But he definitely took that orneriness from her,” said Tyson, now the track and cross-country coach at Gonzaga University in Spokane.

Just like her, Pre was always up early and always had to have everything in order, everything just right. Pre was a “clean freak, just like his mom,” Tyson said. “Pre liked everything perfect — and there’s no doubt he got that from her.”

Tyson said he also remembers Pre’s mother picking lint off her son’s sport coat.

“I think that drove him a little batty,” Tyson said.

But that fierceness, that determination on the track that so captivated track fans in the early 1970s, and eventu- ally Hollywood producers more than 20 years after his death, those were things Tyson and others saw in that small German woman, too.

Pre could beat anyone at arm wrestling, Tyson said. “I think she could have, too.” TAFWA Newsletter - Page 27 - January 2015 Tyson recalled sitting in a theater in January 1997 and watching “Prefontaine,” the first of two feature films about Pre’s life. A home movie clip at the beginning of the film showed siblings Steve and Linda doing push-ups in their Coos Bay home. And who was in the background doing push-ups, too? Elfriede Prefontaine.

It was her son’s spirit that kept her going during the last 38 years of her life, Tyson said.

“Anybody who loses a son, there’s nothing worse than that,” he said. “But Elfriede continued to live Steve’s life.” Pre’s parents not only continued to attend meets at Hayward Field, but they would go to indoor track meets in Portland, attend the functions afterward and listen to the stories.

“She loved to be there to honor his spirit,” Tyson said.

In addition to her daughter Linda, Elfriede Prefontaine is survived by a stepdaughter, Neta Prefontaine of Eu- gene; a sister, Irma Button of Empire; and two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service in Coos Bay will be announced later, Linda Prefontaine said.

Elfriede Prefontaine will be buried in the family’s plot at Sunset Memorial Park in Coos Bay, next to her mother, husband and son.

-- The Register Guard

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 28 - January 2015 http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/marathoner-who-ran-under-olympic-flag-in-2012-sus- pended-by-south-sudan

Marathoner Who Ran Under Olympic Flag in 2012 Suspended By Guor Marial is in dispute over a scholarship awarded by IOC.

By Peter Gambaccini |Image by Asgeir Misund, courtesy of Bill Gallagher |Published January 6, 2015

Guor Mading Maker, then known as Guor Marial, competes as an “Independent Olympic Athlete” in the 2012 Olympic marathon.

Guor Marial, the 2:12 South Sudanese marathoner who competed under theOlympic flag in London in 2012 rather than represent Sudan, has seen his dream of representing South Sudan at the 2016 Games hit a roadblock.

After receiving a scholarship (in effect, a training stipend) from the International Olympic Committee two weeks ago, Marial has been suspended from any activity representing South Sudan by the South Sudan Ath- letic Federation (SSAF) unless he hands the funds over to them. As the Upper Nile Times explains, the federa- tion’s policy is to administer to all its athletes collectively rather than as individuals. The Times reports that the federation told Marial “not to dream” about going to the 2016 Games as a South Sudanese athlete unless he adheres to its dictate.

“He’s sort of in waiting mode to hear the IOC’s response,” Bill Gallagher, who is directing a documentary called Runner Without a Country about Marial, toldRunner’s World Newswire. “This was a personal scholarship from

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 29 - January 2015 the IOC. He’s asking them, ‘Listen, can you talk to these [SSAF] guys?’”

Marial, who is also known as Guor Mading Maker, is currently training at altitude in Kenya. Gallagher says Marial told him he’d been given an ultimatum to appear in South Sudan within 72 hours to discuss his situation or risk further punishment. “He just doesn’t have the money for the trip,” Gallagher said.

Marial lost eight siblings in the Sudanese civil war, fled to Egypt, and eventually made it to New Hampshire in 2001 at age 16. He became a national high school two-mile champion and later an All-American at Iowa State. He’s currently based in Flagstaff, Arizona.

In 2012, Marial rejected the chance to represent Sudan in London, declaring, “I would be betraying my people. I would be dishonoring the two million people who died for [South Sudan’s] freedom.” As South Sudan did not yet have a national Olympic committee, he became one of the few athletes to compete under the Olympic flag. He finished 47th in the marathon in 2:19:32.

Marial had been struggling with a foot injury for a year but is now healthy, according to Gallagher, and he has plans for a spring marathon. He’s a dual citizen of the United States and South Sudan, now, but “he’s been work- ing his heart out to represent South Sudan for so long,” said Gallagher. http://spikesandflats.com/blog/?m=201412 THE DAY DECENCY AND DEMOCRACY DIED

December 10th, 2014 sutrac

Let’s start from the very top and the actual beginning. The legitimate and compelling a priori assumption when it comes to USATF,…. is with- out athletes there is no need or re- quirement for USATF to even exist. The basic rationale and validity for its existence is for it to support the needs wishes and objectives of its athletes’ constituency. Included in that mandate and mission are the volunteers, coaches, officials, and ground root support people that directly work with,.. and develop athletes’.

These are the critical and necessary elements for U.S. track and field athletes to continue their status as the #1 Track and Field Team in the world. The national office and the administrators and board would like to take credit for this lofty position,…..and do at every conceivable opportunity to toot their horn. However, if USATF ceased to exit tomorrow as an administrative body, our medal count at the Olympics and World Championships would not be negatively impacted at all. Here’s the reason why, in a typical Olympics or World Championships the people who actually produce the medals are broken down pretty much along the following lines:

College/Universities, on college/university campuses produce a medal count of 12 – 15 Bobby Kersee, , Clyde Hart typically produce 6 – 8 Miscellaneous coaches, like , Don Babbitt, Julie Benson, etc. 3 – 6

None of these people get substantial dollars or support from USATF. Mostly they are independent of USATF TAFWA Newsletter - Page 30 - January 2015 support and generally operate in a world away from USATF direct contact. The glaring possible exception to this is the work of Dr Ralph Mann and his more than 25 years of biomechanical analysis. The above, non-USATF dependent personnel, produce between 24-27 medals at a typical Olympics and World Championships. If your were to compute the total direct dollar amount they get from USATF it would be less than the travel and hospi- tality bill incurred by the president and the ceo of USATF at these same events.

But I digress. The essential point is that USATF exists solely for the purpose of supporting and assisting athletes and the volunteers and other field people that in fact DO directly support athletes,and therefore DO contribute directly to the athletes’ successes and the resultant medal count that the USOC and USATF are so anxious and ready to brag about. As a form of democratic governance USATF is supposed to function in ways that reflect the will and wishes of its target constituency, namely athletes and the people in the field that minister directly to the needs of athletes. These two groups,….( 1)athletes and (2)those who really and directly support them , are found in two USATF constituent bodies, namely the(2)Delegate Body at the national convention and the(1) Athletes Advisory Committee which is responsible for representing the wishes and rights of athletes.

At the most recent USATF national convention in Anaheim, California,last week, each of these two critical and central groups had elections centered around the position of the IAAF representative position . Bob Hersh was the current representative going into the election process. This position had been elected by the Delegate Body in the past, as it should because the position represents the total body, and the only place where the total body votes is in the Delegate Body. But after the Bill Roe/Doug Logan/Stephanie Hightower by-laws and governance “reform”, this important election was left in the hands of a shrunken( from 29 to 15, 3 of which are outside and “non-aligned”). and non-representative USATF board of directors.

Hightower’s term as president ends in 2016 and she can not repeat. In order to perpetuate herself in power two things have to take place. First she has to make sure she has a place on the board itself going forward. The IAAF representative automatically carries with it a board seat. Then it has to come to past that the board itself elects the chair of the board, negating the fact that in the past the president, who was elected by the total Delegate Body, was also the chair of the board. When then c.e.o.,Doug Logan, circulated the idea back in 2008, that the board should elect the chair of the board, providing him with an opportunity to combine c.e.o. and board chair, Hightower, smelling a rat in Logan’s ploy vehemently fought that idea and won. The chair of the board basically conducts the board meetings and sets the agenda and generally exercises considerable power ad authority as a result. Hightower finds herself in an interesting position now. She has to make sure a procedure she was deathly against in 2008, now is reversed in order for her to perpetuate her ruinous reign. Since she has a strangle hold on the majority of board votes, if it were left to the board to elect the chair, as she has publicly stated, she “has the votes”. This would leave the popularly elected president of USATF as less than a figurehead. That means that again we would have the wishes of the majority,as expressed through a fair and open election of the Delegate Body, negated by a vote taken in a closed “executive session” by the board.

Back to the elections. David Greifinger, a UCLA trained lawyer, formerly general counsel to the board and cur- rently general counsel to the Athletes Advisory Committee saw through the Hightower high- handedness and submitted a proposal that the Delegate Body vote to recommend to the board that it vote to return Bob Hersh as USATF, IAAF representative. This gesture was not totally anti-Hightower, as much as it was recognition of several very important things:

(1) Bob Hersh was the Senior Vice President of the IAAF, a very lofty and influential position within the body and heir apparent if the present IAAF president was unavailable 2) Bob Hersh was a member of the IAAF Council. This like the board of directors and comprises less than 30 memebers from a general membership of more than 200. (3) Bob Hersh is a Columbia trained lawyer and brings decades of honorable and reliable service, includ ing the 16 years it took him to move up Senior Vice President (4) Bob Hersh’s long and impressive tenure brings with it tangible and intangible benefits to USATF that a new person in the position would not immediately possess.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 31 - January 2015 After all the heated debate and discussion it essentially came down to a vote of the Delegate Body as to whom it would ask the board to elect to the position of USATF, IAAF representative. The representative of each of the 50 states, and the District of Columbia voted. The vote was a compelling and convincing 392 for Hersh and 70 for Hightower. A more than 5 to 1 ratio in support of Hersh.

The other relevant vote took place in the Athletes’ Advisory Committee meeting. Again, after much debate and discussion, it was pointed out to the athletes that what was at stake was a vote to support David Greifinger’s proposal in favor of retaining Hersh as IAAF representative. and rejecting Hightower’s bid to unseat him and pave the way for her to continue in power and authority. The vote was returned as unanimous for the more than 70 athletes in the room, with one abstention. There were NO votes in favor of Hightower.

When the board of directors met, it voted 11 for Hightower, with one abstention, and 1 vote for Hersh. When the results were announced the people who were still present at the convention generally were in a state of shock and utter disgust . It was obvious that the board had rejected the wishes of the majority of the people whose wishes and rights it is supposed to protect and serve. There is a very fine distinction between what is law and what is jurisprudence. The law is basically what is written and jurisprudence is based on what is fair and prudent. In a democratic process the will of the majority is supposed to trump the wishes of a self-serving and self-centered few. The board’s action was such a miss-carriage of the critical constituents’ will and wishes as to be demagoguery in its most demented and demeaning form.

How,….. you ask, can 11 people be so above the rest of us, that they can dishonor an honorable man, his service, and the overwhelming majorities that supported him ? The answer is found in the fact that some times the verb of what we do, becomes the adjective to describe us. The board dishonored Bob Hersh,……… and by doing so as- sumes the adjective and description of what they did.

Thanks.

Brooks T. Johnson ( 407) 758 -0755

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 32 - January 2015 http://www.trackerati.com/2014/12/a-ride-for-robert.html

Monday, December 29, 2014 A Ride for Robert

A veteran track and field observer looks for meaning in the most challenging year of his life and finds it in an unexpected meeting with an Olympic champion.

Thursday, May 29, 2013 | A Ride for Robert by Mark Cullen | Dedicated to Wes Van Hooser

Part 1 An Evening with Mike

It’s the first “Distance Night in Eugene” - May 27, 2011 - the evening before the Prefontaine Classic. Now an an- nual event, this is when the world’s greatest distance runners assemble to set the course of running for the year - and sometimes the foreseeable future.

Tonight, has his breakthrough win in the 10,000m in one of the top 20 times ever run, and his star- tling performance presages his London and Moscow double golds. His blistering last lap gets this savvy crowd’s attention – who could ever match that?

Uncommon is common at Hayward Field, where stars mingle readily with the night and night gives the stars all the space they need.

I run into my friend, Mike Johnson, head coach of the Western Oregon University team. I am privileged to join him and his family for the entire evening.

Our talk turns to the best: your five favorite performances ever?

As we stand in this hallowed hall of American distance running, Mike and I share a possibly unexpected entry: Robert Harting, we say, the 2009 World Championships.

Harting was a heavy favorite to win the discus in front of his rabid hometown crowd in Berlin. He lost the lead to Poland’s Piotr Malachowski in the fifth of six rounds. With the crowd going wild - I was privileged to be in the stadium - Harting tossed a lifetime best.

Malachowski had one chance left, but it was clear from the point of release that his dreams would not come true. Like a wounded bird, his disc gave up and dropped well short of Harting’s golden Championship record.

Bedlam.

Harting is known for his exuberant celebrations, and at the end of his competitions, the fewer garments he’s wearing, the better he has performed. He shreds his tops and performs joyful victory laps.

In London, he celebrated his Olympic gold medal by ripping off his singlet, wrapping himself in the German flag, and storming over the hurdles set for the women’s final. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 33 - January 2015 Know that he is 6’ 7” (2.01m), 287 lbs. (130kg).

The crowd chanted as he soared over each row and - gifted athlete - he never came close to clipping a hurdle.

Decathlon, anyone?

“You know I love this sport,” I say to Mike. “I love appreciating it.”

Yet I’ve always kept a respectful distance between myself and these terrific athletes. An unexpected encounter with even one during the course of a World Championship alters my experience and memory of the event.

Trine Hattestad, Norway’s javelin world record holder and World and Olympic champion, will likely not remem- ber the 45 seconds we spent together in Seville in 1999.

I’ll never forget it.

Kip Keino and LaShawn Merritt will likely not remember the moment we converged on passport control in in 2005. I introduced the gold medalist of the past to the gold medalist of the future, but there was an understanding that my name was beside the point.

Earlier, a ripple had passed through the airplane as word spread that Kip Keino was on board.

“If this plane goes down,” I said to my neighbor, “it’s not us who will be in the headlines tomorrow.”

Cheerfully he chimed in, “Also on board…” * * * “But if I ever have the chance to meet Robert Harting and let him know what it was like to be in the stadium that night...”

“Yes,” Mike agrees, “that would be a special moment.”

Part 2 The Voice of God

October 1972. My family was worried.

After 17 consecutive years of school, I took a year off.

“Mark is dropping out of college!”

I knew that wasn’t true. I was torn between history and journalism as majors and did not want to make a mis- take.

I had attended Hampshire College in in its very first year, and as it was too much like my high school, it was time for a change. A year after my parents moved to Seattle, I enrolled as a sophomore at the Uni- versity of Oregon.

The legendary journalism professor, John Hulteng, visiting from Stanford, taught my introductory journalism class. He was eager for me to major in the subject, but I had been on a path for history since I was three years old when my parents gave me the book, America and Its Presidents.

That same fall I enrolled in Bill Bowerman’s beginning jogging class. A week after he was named head coach of

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 34 - January 2015 the ’72 US Olympic Track and Field team, forty of us gathered near a tunnel of the West Grandstand of Hayward Field and waited for who we assumed would be the 49th graduate assistant coach.

Out walked Bowerman.

He turned, looked up at us, and bellowed, “Hi, I’m your coach!”

On the track below us, Pat Tyson, Gary Barger, Arne and Knut Kvalheim, Craig Brigham, Mac Wilkins, and Steve Prefontaine were doing intense workouts.

We watched in awe.

When Bowerman said he was our coach, he meant it. He wrote and posted every one of our workouts. He came to recognize us on campus, and even if he didn’t know our names, he always acknowledged us.

One month into running with this great coach, I needed a long run and entered the Eugene half-marathon. I was delighted to finish well under two hours in my very first race, my years on “the dark side” – that would be soccer – having served my distance base well.

Bowerman recognized me in the Autzen Stadium parking lot and walked my way. I couldn’t believe he was going to talk with me.

“Why’d ya stop?”

“Because I’ve been running for only a month.”

This may have been, in his cantankerous worldview, one of the ten or so reasonable answers he received in his entire life. He softened, asked my time, and was genuinely pleased with the result. I was back in his good graces.

Every week Bowerman posted a revised roster of the forty of us – an updated ranking based on our workouts as well as results from intrasquad races on the on-campus cross country course.

Four columns of ten. I started near the top of the fourth and gradually moved through the third.

There was a weekly race, usually against a community college. Before each one our team manager, a tall, long- haired Texan named, fetchingly, Tex, read through the roster. The first seven who indicated their availability were that week’s team.

Each week I sat in agony hoping he’d get to my name, and in late October, Tex finally did. We ran in Bend against the Central Oregon Hot Dogs. Two-time Olympic biathlete, Jay Bowerman, son of William J., was a member of their team. We had our own name: Bowerman’s Hamburgers. We were, after all, raw meat.

This showdown between July 4th barbecue fodder gave rise to my favorite headline; from the Oregon Daily Em- erald: “Meats Meet Meats in Dual Meet.”

We ran on a dusty course on a hot day. In a sport in which low score wins, we scored 33 points. I worked my way into our top five and was a point scorer that day for a University of Oregon cross country team.

“Hey, Tex!”

“Yes, Mark?”

“I scored a third of our team’s points today!”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 35 - January 2015 “Yes, Mark.”

I went to the first track meet of the ’72 season and never missed another for the next five years. Well, except for June that year when my mother put her foot down regarding the untimely conflict between my sister’s wedding and the NCAA Championships in Eugene.

Section A, row 5, seat 5.

I remain baffled that there was even a question. I gave the tickets to my roommate, Kyle Jansson, my friend to this day.

Three months later I found myself in my native Massachusetts and went to a soccer field in Deerfield to watch a childhood friend play. As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a Lincoln Continental limousine, a rare sight in this part of rural Massachusetts.

During the game, a familiar face became apparent to me. I let him be a father and left him alone. I was intro- duced to his wife and explained my dilemma.

She said, “He loves to have this kind of conversation with the next generation, and he’d love to have this conver- sation with you. Go ask him.”

“In journalism school you will learn a specific style of writing,” he said. “Avoid journalism school at all costs. Take all the English, history, and political science you can get your hands on, and you will learn to think about what you’re writing about, and the writing will come.”

“Thank you, Mr. Cronkite.”

Often people say they’ve received direction from the voice of god.

I, in fact, have.

Editor’s note: this wonderful story has seven parts. Please read the story in its entirety at: http://www.trackerati.com/2014/12/a-ride-for-robert.html

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 36 - January 2015 Partial Fixtures List

2015

Jan. 30-31 Armory Track Invitational, NYC Feb. 7 Boston Indoor Games Feb. 7 US XC Championships, Boulder Feb. 12 TAFWA Winter Banquet, NYC Feb. 14 Millrose Games, Armory/NYC Feb. 27-Mar. 1 USATF Indoor Championships, Reggie Lewis Center, Boston, Mass. Feb. 28-Mar. 2 NAIA Indoor Championships, Geneva, Ohio Mar. 13-14 NCAA Indoor Championships I, Fayetteville, Ark. II Birmingham, Ala. III Winston-Salem, NC Mar. 13-15 New Balance Indoor Nationals (HS), Armory/NYC Mar. 25-28 Texas Relays, Austin Mar. 28 World XC Championships, Guiyang, China Apr. 16-18 Mt. SAC, Walnut, Calif. Apr. 22-26 Drake Relays, Des Moines Apr. 23-25 Penn Relays, Philadelphia May 2-3 World Relay Championships, Nassau, Bahamas May 21-23 NCAA Div II Championships, Allendale, Mich. NCAA Div III Championships, Canton NY NAIA Championships, Gulf Shores, Ala. May 28-30 NCAA Div I Regionals East – Jacksonville, West – Austin May 29-30 Prefontaine Classic, Eugene June 10-13 NCAA Championships, Eugene June 12 TAFWA Spring Banquet, Eugene June 13 adidas Grand Prix, NYC June 19-21 New Balance Outdoor Nationals (HS), Greensboro NC June 25-28 USATF Championships, Eugene June 28 TAFWA Breakfast Social, Eugene, Ore. July 15-19 World Youth Championships, Cali, July 31-Aug. 2 PanAm Juniors, Edmonton Aug. 22-30 World Championships, Beijing Nov. 21 NCAA XC Championships, Louisville, Ky.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 37 - January 2015