V 13 N. 104 "How Coach Helped His Runner Get Off the Starting Line by Putting a Knife to Her Throat" by Paul O'Shea

Sometimes a writer has to create a title to draw readers into his/her lair.  I'm thinking of Jules Verne's titanic book of baseball history,  "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" for example.  And wasn't  it Sigmund Freud who wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?   For a few other suggestions go to end of this post.   Apologies Paul,  it was late and I was tripping.  George

How Coach Helped His Runner Get Off the Starting Line

By Putting a Knife To Her Throat

By Paul O’Shea (Marquette U.)

You know the old adage: those who can’t play a sport, coach.

As a runner, sports journalist, administrator and meet official, I’ve

watched thousands of youngsters chase each other over grass, track and trail.

One lovely September afternoon years ago, when I began coaching a high

school girls cross country team, I was confident I knew the rules.

My Oak Knoll Royals were gathered at the starting line for their first

race of the season in my first race as their coach.

As the runners moved up to the starting line I heard the meet director

shout: “No hats, no watches, no jewelry.”

Fine. Nothing my girls wore threatened their competitors, I thought.

But as the other teams began discarding some offending items, one of my

runners pointed anxiously to the tightly knotted cord around her neck.

“Like you, over there,” the meet official thundered.

He peered at my Lauren.

“What’s that on your neck? Get it off.”

Lauren, an otherwise law-abiding daughter from a fine family,

probably taking four AP courses, volunteering at the local Senior Center,

teaching English as a second language, and a boon companion to her dog,

had around her neck, a forbidden item, a waxed leather necklace.

In New Jersey, where politicians are notable for their notoriety, my

duplicitous fifteen-year-old will commit a felony by starting the cross

country race with that performance-enhancing device.

Panic cauterized Coach’s heart.

I rush to the starting line to remove the offending item, but my

fumbling fingers fail the challenge. Earlier, at home, Lauren decided she

would look even more chic if she trimmed the edges of the knot, improving

her model-like fuselage.

So, as the warm afternoon lingers, the novice coach attempts to loosen

the leather decoration. Now, he looks as if he himself had just journeyed five

thousand meters. He can’t get the bloody thing unknotted.

Looking on are 145 runners, their coaches, family members and

friends, transfixed.

“Anyone have a knife?”

After a few tense moments a Swiss Army knife is found.

Coach very, very carefully slips the blade between Lauren’s slippery,

pulsing neck and the proscribed jewelry. As the knife edges forward, the

athlete stands still as she wisely determines her life may depend on it.

Finally, standing watch, Lauren’s father applauds as I slice through the cord.

She’s ready to start, the gun fires.

A few minutes later we chase twenty teams of teenagers around the

course as Oak Knoll wins the Newark Academy Invitational with 41 points.

Lauren is one of our scoring top five, playing a key role in the victory.

Sadly, Lauren and Coach lost touch over the years. Thinking back to

her work ethic on and off the cross country course, I can well imagine that

today she is a tenured professor of law at Berkeley, summers in Montreaux,

and is long-listed for the Booker. And all because Coach was steady in a

pinch.

My entry into the coaching corps began after I retired.

That summer of ’97, I began to think I could have a new way to keep close

to the sport I treasured for decades. I knew Oak Knoll School in Summit,

New Jersey had once fielded track and cross country teams, but they fell

away as interest dwindled. I visited the school’s athletic director, and said I

would be interested in resurrecting the sport. Sure, he said, as long as you

can persuade seven girls to join up. We did better than that. We brought

fifteen girls and one rookie coach together.

One thing I learned from coaching a cross country team for the first

time is that you don’t have to master a handbook of obscure rules. The

sport’s pretty basic.

Your girls walk up to the starting line, you caution them not to start

before the gun sounds, and please make their way around without

threatening to sue the girl running next to them because she planted an

elbow in the ribs. The athlete who detours the course as if she were bee

lining to the last supermarket parking space, will not amuse the crusty folks

who manage the race. Running the full distance is not only sporting, it’s

preferred. Finally, cross the finish line, maintaining your poise, ideally

without crawling on all fours. Before the race, remind your team to relish

the personal fulfillment that comes from completing the task with honor.

Because the ability to perform well depends on accumulating

substantial physical and mental strength, much of the training involves

running miles. The coach’s art is mixing the right ingredients of mileage,

speed, repetitions and terrain.

Cross country scoring is simple. The first five on the team count, and

you add up their finishing places. Like golf, low score wins. A perfect score

in golf would be an improbable 18, a hole-in-one every tee shot. A perfect

cross country score is 15, which recognizes that your team’s scoring five

finished in the first five positions. That achievement happens infrequently,

but once Oak Knoll was perfect in one dual meet against a traditional rival.

There were any number of sad, funny, tense and elegiac moments

during my coaching career.

I remember the day when one of my backbenchers—the lesser

performing lasses-- was running along in a race at Newark’s Warinanco

Park. A girl from another team passed her, gave her an elbow. My harrier

decided she’d had enough, stopped running, and cried. No coach’s rulebook

prepares you for this.

To underscore the limited power of the coach over his independent

charges, one of my runners was advised before starting her warm up, to lasso

that unencumbered shoelace so a mishap might be avoided. Megan

sincerely believed she’d get to it in due course, or was she remembering the

time she and her teammates played strip poker with a group of boy runners

at a summer running camp? Her mind on other things, perhaps, this race day

she turned an ankle in her warm-up and was listed on the results sheet as

DNS. Did-Not-Start. Later that season she paid closer attention to her

Nikes, and broke the finishing tape as conference champion.

One of our goals was for Oak Knoll to qualify for the Meet of

Champions in November at Holmdel Park, the Carnegie Hall of the state

cross country landscape. That would have placed us among the top twenty

or so teams in New Jersey, but we were never able to qualify. I did have

several individual runners who were outstanding: one qualified for the Meet

of Champions as a freshman.

They, in turn, mostly felt that cross-country would be an entry on their

high school resume. They were well away from those athletes who wanted

to establish themselves through the sport, or even earn a college scholarship

from running.

The school’s better athletes went out for soccer in the fall. We made

do with some dozen girls each year including a couple of “transfers” from

soccer and field hockey when they were downsized. But no one gets booted

off a cross-country team, even if we had to wait until dark for a girl to finish

a workout.

Cross country is a sport with great returns for those who train and

compete. You get rewarded based on your own contribution, and the team

gets rewarded as well. You don’t worry if the coach will put you in the

game, there’s no bench in cross country, everybody’s on team. You don’t

need to be fast, just committed. The honors and medals go to the strong, the

resolute. A good coach can help you get to your own finish line, a winner.

The sport began formally in England in the early nineteen hundreds

and is well titled. Runners traverse the land, usually on grass, or trails, in

parks or campuses. Often with hills to provide additional tests. I loved

coaching cross country.

Most of us enjoy the movies, and if you happen to like classic films as

I do, perhaps you remember what I think of as the best ballet movie of all

time, The Red Shoes.

In that film there’s a very romantic scene with a young couple in the

back of a horse-drawn carriage on the shores of the French Riviera. The

moon sparkles on the water, the carriage moves slowly along the road, their

heads become one. He turns to her and whispers: Will we ever be as happy

as this again in our lives?

Flash forward to a real life transportation scene in the late 1990s.

A school van maintains pace with traffic on New Jersey’s Garden

State Parkway. In the back a dozen Oak Knoll girls are singing Madonna’s

Like a Prayer, at the top of their lungs.

Not the school’s alma mater, to be sure, but the team’s theme song.

Holy Madonna, they’re on their way to a cross country meet.

They’re fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old, intelligent, pretty and fit.

Will they ever be as happy as this again in their lives?

Of course they will. They’re young women of promise, on their way

to spectacular achievement.

September, 2020

1.  "I Can Run With My Eyes Shut"  by Dr. Seuss     or was it "Read With My Eyes Shut"?

1. "Sadomasochism for Accountants"    by Rosy Barnes    could easily have been written for Runners.

3. "The Rape of the Lock"  Alexander Pope    I never understood this title and Miss Hagan my soph English teacher would not let me read it. 

4. "Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera   A perfect title for a book on running.

5. "Your Feet Are Killing You" by Dr. Simon Wikler (1912)  a man ahead of his time.

6. "Theory of Lengthwise Rolling"  by Nikitin, Tselikov, and Rokotyan.   Supposedly Vladmir Kuts was into this.  

V 13 N. 103 Thomas Coyne Shares a Running "Philosophy"

This Sunday morning (October 29, 2023) is bright an sunny, and a heavy frost on Vancouver Island is now being consumed by the sun's rays.  In years past, I'd have been in the mid stages of a long run, but today I choose to remain in the warmth of the house, enjoying a second coffee and watching the birds scrounging for a few remaining seeds in the feeder.  Maybe I'll go for a long walk this afternoon (after the Bengals-49ers game) and throw in a few 'wind sprints' along the way.

Thomas Coyne whom I have gotten to know through this blog has been a runner, an educator, a commentator, a writer, and a friend I've never met.  We've shared many thoughts and ideas over the years, and I've never ceased to be amazed by what he brings to the table of wisdom and humor that we try to convey to our readers.  Sometimes Thomas shares things that he has written over the many years, and this one is from 1983.   There will be another one of these in a day or two, but let's let this one sink in for the time being.   Thanks, Thomas.         George

                                        HOW TO SURVIVE AND HAVE FUN

                                                  . . . . Though Running

                                                        by Thomas Coyne

Unlike many recent devotees of the sport I do not find it necessary to justify myself. I

run because I like to and I feel like it. With this attitude I get all of the benefits without

any of the soul-searching. It’s a lot like being a drunk rather than an alcoholic. I don’t

have to go to all the meetings. A less visible advantage is that it frees the mind while

running. The philosopher types have to listen to their Karma, commune with nature,

think deep thoughts. I can screw around.

The attitude is best fulfilled when running with others. Usually, I run with people who

are as good or better than I am as a runner. Consequently, I have to be alert to ways I

can negate their superior skills or get an edge on the equal ability lads. One way, with a

new running companion, is to neglect to mention we’re supposed to turn at the next

corner until I already have and he is past the intersection. The constant playing “catch-

up” can really break one’s rhythm. This, you understand, is good for only once around

that course. To really make it work one needs many different loops.

Another technique is to engage companions in spirited conversation in which they end up

doing the conversing and I do all the breathing. There is, however, a danger in this

technique. Given the right topic the adrenaline really starts to flow and the speaker

moves right into race pace.

Running with needle artists is fun. A group with two or three wise guys in it is always

lively. They alternately gang up on someone in the pack and then shift to cutting up each

other. The constant back and forth skewering keeps you alert and the miles just flee by.

However, for long range fun and pleasure I’ve found an involved, practical joke is the

best. Fitting the pieces of a scam together during workouts over weeks, and even months,

puts variety and spice into what otherwise might be another humdrum conversation about

the respective merits of running shoes. I do mean weeks and months, by the way. The

most involved hoax a couple of us put together began with an innocent remark made

during the tail end of an August noonday workout and didn’t end until we played a tape

recording for the still unsuspecting victim the following June and confessed all (almost

all, that is). The hoax involved, by the time we were through, a naked lady, medical

ethics, the Mafia (with appropriate references to runners’ broken legs), a few well timed

and taped telephone inquiries and two brands of coffee.

During various workouts, and afterward in the locker room, we set the several stages of

the charade carefully in place. A key point was not returning to the subject during each

and every workout but, instead, casually slipping in a point or two, to keep up the

momentum of the joke, during runs sometimes weeks apart. Non-running acquaintances

added some of the needed pieces in between. Not all practical jokes require such

elaborate details to achieve their objectives, but once the imagination starts working only

the limits of gullibility and mercy can restrain it.

What it all comes down to, I believe, is the companionship; the mutual encouragement of

runners in what otherwise might indeed be loneliness. In all honesty, however, it is not

the best way to become a top-flight racer. The tendency of packs to run to accommodate

the least gifted makes for good fellowship, but not champions. There is a point,

therefore, when two or three of the most ambitious may go their separate ways for a

period of time to test and stretch and drive themselves to still another plateau of fitness in

preparation for a race or series of races. This is as it should be, for in the ebb and flow of

the seasons the pack will reform, the camaraderie will resume, and friends of all abilities

will renew themselves in the fellowship of the run. Wits will sharpen, and jokes will be

told and retold. We will take ourselves a bit less seriously and….the fun begins.

Thomas E. Coyne

February 14, 1983

V 13 N. 102 The Ingebrigtsen Case

 

The Ingebrigtsen Case

In the past week the Ingebrigtsen family of Norwegian world class runners Henrik, Filip, and Jakob and their coach father Gjert have projected themselves into the limelight with accusations by the sons that their father had been abusive and violent to them as the head of their family and as their mentor and coach.

The brothers have stated in an op-ed on October 19, 2023 in the Norwegian newspaper VG that their father, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, "had been very aggressive and controlling" and "used physical violence and threats as part of our upbringing."

    While no details have been made public by the sons, the Norwegian police have opened an investigation into the matter.

     Having worked in the field of child safety, abuse, and neglect for over twenty years what I find intriguing and difficult in this case is the athletic success of the brothers despite their allegations of abuse. Often times children turn away or abandon the sport or the art that has been imposed upon them by a demanding parent. In the Ingebrigtsen family, this has not been the situation. 

       In a slightly different context, some parents turn their children over to coaches and mentors who can be very demanding, even violent in their relationship toward the child/athlete.  In situations like that, are the parents as guilty as the coach?  

       This is clearly a family in turmoil. The patriarch, Gjert, has also been sanctioned, as a result of his sons’ allegations, from participating as a coach in the recent world championships in Budapest. Although the sons have split with Gjert, he currently coaches one of the closest rivals to Jakob in the 1500 meters, the Norwegian teenager Narve Gilje Nordas. What must the Nordas family be thinking?

       As a former coach and an observer of coaches and families of athletes I can look back and see all kinds of relationships that I have admired and others I’ve been disgusted by. I can think of some that appeared stable on the outside but were later revealed to be total chaos within. That applies to any realm of human performance and family dynamics including art and music and then just general human, every day existence. Different children respond differently to all kinds of training and discipline when they are growing up and when they are close to becoming adults. And for a parent to know where there is a boundary which they cannot cross is not an easy task. Parents’ judgements are often based on how they themselves were raised. We know that family discipline was a lot more aggressive in generations past.  Coaching was also a lot more openly aggressive sixty or seventy years ago.    Spousal abuse and child abuse only went on the books as crimes in the US in the 1970’s. In these cases which come to the attention of social workers and police, the boundaries are not always clear lines drawn in the sand. Many times a social worker has to err on the side of caution to protect a child. Was a bruise on a child's arm the result of a beating or pulling them out  of the way of danger?   Sometimes that social worker’s judgement is overturned upon more careful investigation. Sometimes the wounds caused by social services in removing a child from perceived danger can be as hurtful to the family as the alleged danger that that child’s life appeared to be in at the time.

At this stage of the ‘Ingebrigtsen case’ if that is what we can call it in a legal sense, I’m not sure what Norwegian law says about looking backwards in time to the alleged abuse, now that those three brothers are adults. Would the case still fall under the child protection laws or become a charge in another level of jurisdiction? Were the three brothers adults prior to the time they broke away from their father? If they were adults then charges of abuse and violence would probably fall under the adult jurisdiction.

My other questions are, “What happens to the other four children in the Ingebrigtsen home?” If they are still juveniles, do they need the protection of children’s services? Should they be removed from the home or at the least some supervision order be placed on the parents? This adds the question of what extent the mother is involved in the situation. Is she a victim as well or an enabler? That is a whole other area that may be investigated.

None of the possible outcomes to this case are something I would wish upon anyone. This family needs a lot of healing to go on if anyone is to find any peace. Peace will not come quickly or without a lot of pain.  

    What I tend to forget when writing about a situation like this is how many incredibly wonderful coaches and parents are out there doing the best job they know how to be great examples to young people in all stages of growing up.  

   George Brose

Comments:   

What a surprise.  I did not see that coming.  Outstanding summary of the possibilities, George, but whatever abuse took place, it certainly and surprisingly resulted in incredible performances.  In a book about the 100 best baseball players of all time, their fathers tended to either be tyrants or supporters in nearly equal numbers.  Had those players been raised by the opposite type of parents, would they have achieved the same results?  The same can be asked about the Ingebrigtsen kids.  Bill Schnier

Dear George:

Key to all of this is what we don't know.

Perhaps a thorough investigation will reveal it.

Your summary is well stated.  The coaches I have had (3) leaned toward the aggressive but never to the point of causing me to want to give up running.

I doubt, with their fame, the brothers will stop but it is sad to see internal family dynamics played out in public.

Take care,

Tom

V 13 N. 101 A Look Back at a Beautiful Cross Country Film

 A few years ago we posted this film shot by Tom Daymont of a Cross Country Meet at St. Olaf's College in Minnesota.  I can't think of a more beautiful setting or filming job done of this sport.  It was in the early days of drone photography, and was so inspiring.   The second link is more background on Tom Daymont.

St. Olaf's Cross Country   link

Meet the Videographer, Tom Daymont  link

V 13 N. 100 The Canadian Hammer Throwers from "World Athletics"

 Thanks to Steve Smith who forwarded this article to us from World Athletics written by Paul Gains.

With the onset of the National Hockey League season  and Curling, these two youngsters may soon be forgotten by their Canadian brethren.   Let's keep these kids in mind for next year's Olympics in Paris.   GB

Canadian sprinters and combined eventers have distinguished themselves at the highest level in recent years, but it was a pair of hammer throwers who took centre stage at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg both captured world hammer titles in the Hungarian capital, providing half of Canada’s gold medal haul.

“It’s pretty incredible,” says 24-year-old Rogers, who improved upon the silver medal she won in Oregon in 2022. “It’s something that has never been done before, and to be able to share this moment with Ethan is really cool; we get to show we are a throwing country and we have a lot of force and power on the world stage.

“He is such an awesome person, and he and his coach Dylan (Armstrong) work so hard,” Rogers added of Katzberg. “He is so deserving of being the world champion.”

Incredibly, Katzberg is even younger than Rogers, having turned 21 in April of this year. Although he earned silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, it was inconceivable that he would improve to the point he might contend for a place on the Budapest podium. But as he did in Birmingham a year ago, the 1.98m tall former basketball player peaked precisely at the right time, throwing a Canadian record of 81.18m in the qualifying round.

“In the qualifying, (Wojciech) Nowicki asked me how far I threw and I said 81.18m,” he recalls with a laugh. “I think he might have even chuckled as if he didn’t believe me. It came as a shock to everyone. With the qualifying, going to the final I knew I was capable (of winning).”

He threw even farther in the final, reaching 81.25m to earn the title. He credits Armstrong – the 2008 Olympic shot put bronze medallist – and the legendary Anotoliy Bondarchuk, former world record-holder and 1972 Olympic hammer champion, for their meticulous guidance.

“That is Dylan’s job. He masterminds the whole season,” Katzberg declares with a smile. “A personal best at major championships is what he wants. Being able to do that twice now shows what we are doing is working and that full commitment was the reason for the huge growth this year.”

The celebratory dinner that night included his parents and sister Jessica, whom he followed into the hammer event when they were both teens, along with Armstrong and his family. And when Rogers finally met up with him that night, he was the recipient of a bear hug from his teammate.

Although Rogers and Katzberg are both from British Columbia, they only see each other at major championships. Still, she drew inspiration from his performance.

“Ethan basically had the competition that so many people can only dream of – setting a personal best in the qualifying and then again in the final to win – it’s unheard of,” Rogers said.

"Oh my gosh, we were all so excited for him, so I was hoping to carry that momentum through with the women's hammer. That’s the kind of energy you want to have before a competition.”

 

Ethan Katzberg in the hammer at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 (© AFP / Getty Images)

The women’s hammer final was three days later and Rogers, with the help of her coach Mo Saatara, was able to contain her emotions in the interim. The draw for the final put her 12th and last in the order, meaning she would be forced to watch a sublime cast of throwers ahead of her.

“Sometimes part of the fun can be being last in the order because it gives you a chance to respond,” Rogers says, laughing again. “In that situation it was really cool to be 12th and last in the order for that reason specifically. When you have such incredible women throwing in a competition together, I think it’s a very motivating factor.”

The anticipation of getting into the circle to start the competition built to a crescendo, and on Rogers’ very first throw she reached 77.22m. That would be enough for the gold medal.

Camryn Rogers in the hammer at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 (© Getty Images)

Leading up to the championships, both Canadians had their share of distractions.

A native of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Katzberg has lived and trained in Kamloops since Armstrong recruited him after high school. It's in an area known as the Thompson Okanagan and was surrounded for months by out-of-control wildfires.

“There were days when, if the wind was blowing the right way, Kamloops would be covered in smoke,” Katzberg remembers.

His thoughts were with his grandparents who live 170km away in West Kelowna. Unbeknown to Katzberg, two days before his gold medal victory, the BC government ordered residents to evacuate as roughly 200 homes were razed. Katzberg’s grandparents were among the evacuees but were eventually able to return to their home.

Rogers, who is from Richmond, British Columbia, just outside Vancouver, has been studying at the University of California, Berkeley the past five years and recently finished up her masters’ degree in cultural studies of sport and education. Her collegiate career included three NCAA hammer titles (2019, 2021 and 2022).

Academia was on her mind even as she was in her final preparation for the World Championships.

“I actually submitted my masters’ thesis two weeks before I competed in the final of the World Championships,” she says, laughing aloud. “I wrote a policy recommendation that would help allow international student-athletes competing in the NCAA to benefit and partake in image-and-likeness contracts, and to be able to receive compensation while they are in the US. It’s a very personal experience on that one.”

Now that she is finished with school, she has signed a Nike contract which she says will ease financial stress going forward. She also starts a job in a couple of weeks; she will be an advocate for special education in an attorney’s office. Her hours will be flexible and she will work remotely from her home in Oakland.

Having enjoyed some time off, she is back in the gym lifting weights and preparing for 2024.

“Coach Mo was telling me the other day ‘every year you start back at square one’,” she says. “And so we have to do everything we did last year all over again and look at all the things we did right and how we get better.”

Already the Paris Olympics are in focus. Looking back on her Tokyo Olympic experience – she was a credible fifth – she remembers feeling “young and inexperienced like a deer in the headlights”. This time she will compete as the world champion and with all of the expectations and pressures Canadians will likely place on her.

“I am someone who has always liked pressure,” she responds. “Going into Paris, I think I will feel some of that anxiety a little bit. But it’s more because I understand the level of competition coming to Paris. I want to be up there with them and aiming to get on the podium like everyone else; aiming for the gold. It’s definitely going to be an insane competition, I can tell you that.”

Katzberg, who enjoys fly fishing for rainbow trout in the lakes near Kamloops, was given one day off following his Budapest victory before he, Armstrong and Bondarchuk embarked on a programme aiming at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Although he was still coming to terms with his World Championships gold a month afterwards, Katzberg believes he can shelve the excitement of being world champion and return to the podium.

“I am extremely motivated; I just want to stick to the programme, keep doing what I am doing, keep enjoying it and make a big push for the Olympics,” he says. ”Hopefully the season goes well leading up to that. I am not looking at anything number-wise. I will keep my head down and train hard.”

An unprecedented double victory behind them, this pair of Canadians will be a force come the Paris Olympics and, given their young age, for years to come.

Paul Gains for World Athletics

V 13 N. 98 Too Long Since Our Last Post - Touching Lightly on a Number of Subjects

 I haven't posted anything for almost a month, but I have enjoyed a three week hiatus with a trip back to the old sod of Southwest Ohio after four years of Covid imposed isolation.    Had time to catch up with old friends who are still alive and commiserate for those we've lost in the interim.  Then had to take on a bout with the Covid bug when I got back to British Columbia.  Good way to lose weight.  I dropped ten pounds in a week but don't recommend it as a way forward.  Still I was able to get on the bike yesterday and ride trails for a bit over an hour at almost the pace I used to run them.  And it was not an e-bike I was on.  

Today the news springs out that the Ingebrigtsen family has been having its squabbles and are going public, and they hopefully can resolve that family conflict with the aid of some professional reconciliation help.  But with the fame, and money involved and the parent/child healing that needs to happen, it will not be an easy task.  I've worked in this area for the past thirty years as a family mediator, and it ain't easy for the protagonists to come together and hear each other's views and find a path to rebuilding a family.  

Grant Fisher one of our most shining hopes in the distances in Paris next year has announced that he is leaving his club and coach.  Hoping for the best for him and that he finds the combination of guidance and surroundings that will bring out all of his potential as an incredible runner.

Our friend Darryl Taylor has sent a beautiful piece about his good friend Gene Gurule who passed away this month.  I'm waiting for Darryl to return from a trip to the Grand Tetons where he is doing some filming in order that he can provide some additional photos of Gene.   They go right back to their days in high school.  Gene was a member of the NCAA national champion San Jose State Cross Country team in 1963 and later was coach at Mission Viejo HS in SoCal.

On another note,  I've been talking to good friend Rick Lower who worked for Blue Ribbon Sports/Nike almost from its inception.  He is doing some research on University of Oregon runner Ralph Hill (Does this name ring a bell?)..............think........................... Okay if the bell rang you are a guru. I had read about Ralph in Kenny Moore's book, but since forgotten.  Rick fired me up on the subject, because Hill was the first great Oregon runner under Coach Bill Hayward who finished second in the 5000 meters at the 1932  Los Angeles Olympics.  It was a near dead heat, and a lot of people felt that the winner Laurie Leithenen had blocked Hill illegally coming down the home stretch.  Hill who proved himself a total gentleman refused to contest the finish post race.  We'll talk more about that in the near future.  

And finally but not the least important thing on this post is that I was able to visit with Bob Schul at his senior care center while I was on my visit back to Ohio.  I have attached a picture of the two of us.  I am holding a photo of a painting done for Bill Dellinger of Bill, Bob and Harald Norpoth in that unforgettable Tokyo 5000 meters in 1964.  Bob could really use some cheering up from all of those who see this.  Consider a Thanksgiving Day card and/or a Christmas card.  Even a belated birthday card.  He turned 87 earlier this month.   His address is:  

Bob Schul,  

Bickford of Middletown,  

4375 Union Road, Middletown, OH 45005.

and a happy cross country season to all,

George Brose

Correction: Bob Schul is "only" 86. Born Sept. 28, 1937  Geoff Pietsch

V 13 N. 97 Track and Field Can Be Dangerous to Your Health on a Given Day

 The following article appeared in the Oct. 1, 2023  The Guardian telling about a Chinese track official being seriously injured while working at the hammer throw at the Asian Games.  You want to believe those nets and cages are bullet proof, but they are not, especially in this case.  So next time you are walking by officials working the throwing events, try not to distract them and afterward thank them for doing what they do to make the sport possible.

Asian Games official in stable condition after being hit by stray hammer throw

• Huang Qinhua suffers broken leg and serious bleeding
• Ali Zankawi’s throw flies out of cage sideways at Games in China

Reuters

Sun 1 Oct 2023 19.57 EDT

An athletics official suffered a broken leg and serious bleeding after being hit by a misthrown hammer in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, but his vital signs are now stable.

On Saturday, Kuwait’s Ali Zankawi lined up for one of his throws in the men’s hammer final at the eastern Chinese city’s packed Olympic stadium. But instead of soaring straight onto the outfield, the hammer flew out sideways and low to the right, smashing into the leg of the sitting technical official.

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Looking horrified, Zankawi sprinted over as blood began spurting from the official’s right leg. The official, Huang Qinhua, 62, grimaced and swayed dizzily as Zankawi rushed to check on him, blood shooting out of the wound.

Within seconds Zankawi was using his huge hands and strength to improvise a tourniquet on Huang’s thigh and halt the bleeding. Medical personnel soon took Huang away on a stretcher after applying a tourniquet, then sent him to a nearby hospital.

“He arrived at the hospital at 20:15, where was diagnosed with a right open tibiofibular fracture,” Games spokesman Xu Deqing told a news conference on Sunday. “Currently his vital signs are stable.”

Kuwait’s Zankawi Ali in action at the 2023 Asian Games. Photograph: Lee Jin-man/AP

Afterwards Zankawi looked shaken and was seen asking after the official, according to a Reuters witness.

The final was won by China’s Wang Qi. Zankawi finished eighth but still managed a season’s best of 67.57 m, which he threw in the second round before his misthrow.

As is common in athletics competitions, the official had sat several metres from the cage-like netting that surrounds the throwing circle where the athletes spin and take their throws.

But the power and velocity of the 7.26kg flying metal ball meant the netting could only slightly cushion the hammer’s flight, not stop it.

The netting in athletics is designed to hang relatively loosely to prevent hammer balls and discuses from bouncing back at the athletes after misthrows.

Many users of Chinese social media platform Weibo, where the incident was trending on Sunday, said safety protocols should be improved to offer better protection for officials.

Some comments:

Mike Waters:  Yikes!,  George I enjoy working the hammer event.  Are you trying to scare me  

A friend told me about an official in New Zealand who had a big crease in his forehead from a discus.  I suggested he might consider trying Bondo to fill it.  We used it on dents in our cars.   Somewhere I've got photos (1920s early 30s)  of people standing around the hammer throw with no protection.    One of the L.A. Track Club's good runners had a career ending injury to his foot or leg from a discus.    At Oklahoma we had an very good thrower about 180 feet and the discus would skid across the track.  We always had to keep an eye out for him when we were running intervals.   George

Steve Smith:    I worked all the events but I enjoyed the hammer the most.

Years ago we had a guy warned many times about turning his back to the ring. 

He was hit with the wire and maybe the handle, it fractured his arm and then he tried to sue the school. 

 I think the discus is the most hazardous sometimes the discus just seems to take off on a strange path and then bounce or slide weird. I have been on the field at an NCAA meet when a official was hit in the head with a discus. A left handed thrower tends to make the discus act weird. Another PAC 12 meet and a discus took a strange bounce, changed direction and hit an official in the shoulder

 I also remember at a meet in Carson Ca. about 10 years a shot hit and killed an official.

Mike

V 13 N. 96 Don 'Red' Edwards, Sixty-Four Years at the Helm of Big Walnut HS in Sunbury, OH, R.I.P.

 

Few will ever be able to say they spent sixty years in coaching anything or anybody.  Red Edwards could.

I got to meet Red about ten years ago before moving to Canada and spent the better part of a day in his museum in the old farm house on his property.  Red attended his last state track meet this year and several of my acquaintances saw him and talked to him then.  We did a story about that visit to his museum and here is a link to that piece as well as a tribute from his high school Big Walnut in Sunbury,  OH , just north of Columbus.

A Trip to Amish Country and a Track Museum  link

Red Edwards, Big Walnut High School   link

From Terry Oehrtman

Please post on any format.

Red Edwards:  Track & Field/Cross Country historian passed away on Thursday, September 28th.  Red was 85.  Red created a wonderful museum of our sport(s) in a house in Sunbury, Ohio.  He loved to show his many accumulated documents and artifacts of his beloved Big Walnut High School, as well as many other interesting items of general track and cross country interest to anyone who wanted to visit.  His only requirement for admission was for the guest to sign his guest register.  Red was a great promoter of our sport(s).  For many years he displayed many items from his museum at the Annual OATCCC Track & Field Clinic in Columbus. 

From Kevin Lewis

This Thursday, Oct 5, from 6-8 pm are visitation hours at Snyder Funeral Home, DeVore Chapel, 637 N St , Rt 61 , Sunbury Funeral will be Friday Oct 6, at 1:00 pm at the Funeral Home Graveside Service is at 2:00 pm at Sunbury Memorial Park, 98 W Cherry St, Sunbury There will be a celebration of Red's life on Saturday morning, Oct 21 at Big Walnut High School. Details will come later.