----- Original Message -----
From: <TrackCEO@...>
To: <masterstf@egroups.com>
Cc: <t-and-f@...>
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 10:18 AM
Subject: t-and-f: Gray, Petranoff bow out with heads held high


> Y ask Y:
>
> Well, masters athletes at the U.S. Olympic Trials failed to pull off a miracle
tonight in Sacramento. But they gave it their best shot and proved an
inspiration to the sold-out crowd and their younger rivals.
>
> Johnny Gray, competing at age 40 in his SIXTH Olympic Trials (he made the
Games in four of them), started out strongly in Heat 1 of the 800 prelims. For a
glorious minute, Gray was the stud of old. He led the 6-man field through 200
in 24.7 and 400 in 52.84. He looked powerful, relaxed -- eating up the track
with his trademark loping strides.
>
> Then reality struck around 500 meters. Horribly swiftly, the field blew past
him. He told a colleague of mine later that he simply gave up. On the final
homestretch, he slowed almost to a jog in the last 20 meters, finishing last in
1:53.27. He didn't look tired. He just didn't have a kick to make a go of it.
So he shut down.
>
> Then something magical happened.
>
> Immediately after crossing the finish line -- and realizing that this was his
last appearance in an elite open meet -- he did a 180-degree turn and jogged
back along the homestretch in front of the main bleachers. He started to wave
to the fans. The crowd started to cheer. He sucked up the raw emotion and
stopped in the middle of the track, facing that appreciative crowd, and gave a
bow.
>
> He wasn't done yet.
>
> Going clockwise, he ran back around the track to the backstretch bleachers,
where section after section began to stand. People shouted out his name. People
whistled. People applauded. Johnny Gray, the American record holder still at
1:42.6, took off his spiked shoes. He threw one into the crowd, jogged in
stocking feet another 20 yards, and threw the other shoe into the packed stands.
>
> Folks were eating it up. It may have been the biggest outpouring of respect
and affection for a masters-age athlete ever seen at the Trials.
>
> He continued jogging, then was pulled over by an NBC camera crew. He spoke
with Jim Gray (no relation; an interview I haven't seen yet), and eventually
exited the track to even more cheers and applause.
>
> Not long afterward, Tom Petranoff began his own swan song to open track.
>
> At age 42, he may have been the first athlete ever to win a world WAVA title
one year and compete in the Olympic Trials the next.
>
> Tom told eventual-champion Breaux Greer that he wanted to really unload a
monster throw on his first effort.
>
> It was not to be.
>
> In his first attempt, at 9:15 p.m., he got too excited and messed up his step.
He apparently caught a spike in the Mondo runway -- and took an embarrassing
pratfall before he could even get off a legitimate throw.
>
> Unhurt (apparently), he got up and went back to preparing for his next throws.
>
> Wearing a white T-shirt under an MF Athletics singlet and heaving a steel-blue
javelin, Tom got off his best throw of the night in the second round at 9:30
p.m. The toss was (70.39) 230-11. It held up for seventh place overall.
>
> By the end of the first round, however, his chances of finishing in the top 3
were essentially over. Third place after the first round was 252-1. He has
thrown that far in recent years, but he didn't look strong enough for it
tonight.
>
> His other throws: Foul, 70.13 (230-1), 68.60 (225-01), 67.95 (222-11).
>
> He wore a weight-lifter's leather belt in all his attempts and sometimes a wry
smile as he was getting ready to throw.
>
> Although he studiously went through the throwing and stretching motions
between attempts, he also looked more like an observer than an engaged
competitor. He chatted with Greer (giving him some technical tips points --
telling him to "throw through the point".) He even appluaded Greer as Greer was
taking his last throw.
>
> So it appeared Tom knew his elite career had reached an end as well.
>
> Afterward, a colleague of mine tried to collar Tom for an interview. But Tom
-- who told the world's press after the prelims that his presence exposed the
sorry state of javelining in America -- had had enough of the spotlight. He
made a quick exit and was unavailable to reporters.
>
> Breau Greer stuck around, however. After the medal ceremony and the
obligatory press conference in the interview tent south of the stadium, Greer
told me that he had become friends with Petranoff when both competed this past
April at the Penn Relays.
>
> It seems that the Penn Relays included a TurboJav throwing competition, which
Greer won at something over 80 meters. (TurboJav is a Petranoff invention -- a
plastic toylike training javelin that he introuduced in South Africa.)
>
> Greer -- a former training partner of Internet stud and WAVA world champion
Courtland Gray in Louisiana -- said he hit it off with Petranoff from the start,
since they both were fun-loving free-spirit types.
>
> So the truth is this: Petranoff may not have made it to Sydney at age 42. But
his advice and encouragement to Greer -- in the middle of the lad's most
important competition of his life -- may have been crucial to Greer's achieving
an Olympic qualifying mark on a gorgeous, near-windless evening in Sacramento,
California.
>
> Masters athletes never die. They just give life to the next generation of
Olympians.
>
> Ken Stone
> http://www.masterstrack.com
>
>
>
>
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