Greetings, all The American roster for the 14th World Veterans Athletic Championships this July in Brisbane has been released -- and it contains several surprises and ironies. See the roster at: http://www.masterstrack.com/USAList.html Not a shock is the steep drop in entrants from the Gateshead WAVA meet in 1999. According to the roster provided by USA Team Manager Don Austin, some 390 American athletes will compete in the "mild" northeast Australian winter. That's nearly 29 percent fewer than the 547 who jumped the Pond to compete in northeast England in 1999. The list may be incomplete, however, because American entrants were given the option of deleting their names from the public roster. Interestingly, the two strongest advocates of barring public disclosure of the USA lineup are themselves listed in the roster. Roz Katz and former USA Team Manager Sandy Pashkin both allowed their names to be used on the roster made public this week. Katz, in fact, made a motion at the 1999 USATF national convention in Los Angeles to permit athletes to withhold their names from public listings, and Pashkin supported her fellow New Yorker. See my recounting of this matter at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/masterstf/message/3601 Katz, by the way, is a W55 entered in the discus, hammer, javelin, shot and weight pentathlon. Pashkin is entered in the W55 100, 10K racewalk, 5K racewalk, javelin and discus. If the posted roster is accurate, the oldest male American competing in Brisbane will be Dudley Healy of New Jersey, 87, and the oldest woman Betty Jarvis of Oklahoma, 85. Healy is entered in the 1500, 5000 and 10,000. Jarvis is entered in the discus, hammer, javelin, shot and weight pentathlon. No word on the status of Waldo McBurney, who was M95 at Gateshead, or fellow nonagenarian Everett Hosack, who missed Gateshead but has competed more recently. Also missing from the posted WAVA roster are M40 Johnny Gray, M50 Nolan Shaheed and masters legend Phil Raschker. Shaheed would have provided the biggest competition to Rod Dixon in the 1,500 at Brisbane. I hope to learn soon whether Shaheed is in fact going or not. Four Americans will be competing in their 14th consecutive biennial world WAVA meet -- having been part of the movement since its genesis in the 1970s. They are distance runner Jim O'Neil of San Diego, racewalker Ruth Anderson of California, racewalker Bob Fine of Florida and racewalker Bob Mimm of New Jersey. Returning to action after injury and rehab is National Masters News editor and publisher Al Sheahen, who bravely has entered the 400, 800, 300m hurdles and 100 hurdles at age 69. Also worth cheering is a 50-year-old gent named Bill Roe of Washington. When he's not training for the 8K cross country race, Roe serves as president of USA Track & Field. (Next time, he should drag miler Craig Masback along with him.) Another former WAVA standout back in the hunt is long hurdler Mike Pannell of New Mexico, who is entered in the 400 and 400 hurdles at age 47. He missed Gateshead for a variety of reasons. Other notable entrants on the USA squad: -- Lucus Buckley at age 84 will try his hand and feet at the decathlon, 300 hurdles, 800, 80 hurdles, 1500 and 2K steeplechase. He's from Oregon, where fearless runners grow on trees. -- Bill Collins of Texas, new in M50, will tackle the 100, 200 and 400 (and possibly relays at the end). -- Bill Knocke of California, a 1960 Olympic Trials 400 man, is entered in the 100, 400, 300 hurdles, 200 and -- new for him -- the decathlon. -- Anselm LeBourne of New Jersey seeks to defend his 1999 WAVA titles in the M40 800 and 1500, while fellow American middle-distance star Rose Monday of Texas will go after medals in the 400, 800 and 1500 in W40. -- Pete Mundle, the masters records guru, is entered in the M70 1500, 5000 and 8K cross country run. -- Gerry Davidson of Fallbrook, California, has entered a new age group -- W80 -- and four events (400, 800, 1500 and 5000). Her nemesis of recent years, Louise Adams of Colorado, is 79 and stays in the age group behind. -- New Yorker Ed Gonera of the 4x4 world record Sprint Force America team will hope the Force is with him as he tackles the M45 100, 200, 400 -- and decathlon. -- Running author and columnist Hal Higdon will celebrate his entry into the M70 ranks with tries at 1500, 10,000, 2K steeple and a journey known as the marathon. -- After several years' absence from the masters circuit, world record sprinter Stephen Robbins of California is back in the chase, entered in the M55 100, 200 and 400. -- Frequent USATF Masters Athlete of the Year James Stookey of Maryland will stay busy, entered in the M70 100, 200, 300 hurdles, 80 hurdles, high jump, triple jump and long jump. -- Dr. Joan Stratton of Arizona will test NEGATIVE for performance enchancing drugs if she's a factor in her events -- the W45 discus, hammer, javelin, shot and weight pentathlon. (She's a world-class expert on doping issues.) -- I'm unsure if this is a typo, but both Sharlet Gilbert of California, 50, and Malcolm Gillis of Alabama, 68, are listed as having these events on their Brisbane plate: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 5000, 8K cross country and marathon. No word on whether they'll petition to enter the steeplechase. -- And last but not least (in the Ironwoman Department) is 54-year-old Mary Trotto of New York, who is entered in the heptathlon, 2K steeple, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 300 hurdles, high jump, pole vault and discus. Whew! For more information on Brisbane WAVA, see: http://www.masterstrack.com/wava2001/wava2001.html Ken Stone http://www.masterstrack.com
