August 5, 2007 Masters Shuttle Hurdle Relay Orono, Maine Sweden www.woodhurdles.com

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Thank you for visiting woodhurdles.com Information regarding the
Shuttle Hurdle Relay can be found below:

Hurdler picture from Masters Meet in Maine August 2007.

For a larger copy of the pic please visit:
http://www.woodhurdles.com/ShuttleHurdleRelay/pic.jpg

History Made by Team Effort: Masters Shuttle Hurdle Relay:

A team effort helped make the August 5, 2007 Masters Shuttle Hurdle Relay in Orono,
Maine a success. This is the first time this event has been included with the National
Outdoor Track & Field Championships. I would like to thank the relay teams, the
alternates that were available, those that were injured that gave support to the event, the
officials, the Games Committee, the hurdle crew, Doctor Ivan Black (one of the alternates)
that helped patch-up one of the wounded hurdlers, pictures taken by the Stone family, and
the encouragement of M60-69 hurdlers Bob Osterhoudt & Robert Baker. A total of five
teams completed the relay.

What is a Masters Shuttle Hurdle Relay? Each relay team has four hurdlers plus one or

two alternates. Each team competes in two lanes, one lane “up” and the other lane “back.”
The hurdles for “up” are set facing the correct direction, with the same spacing and
height as the high hurdle race for the age-bracket. The hurdles for “back” are set facing
the correct direction, with the same spacing and height as the high hurdle race for the
age-bracket. Lanes 1, 4 & 7 were setup for “up.” Lanes 2, 5 & 8 were set for “back.”
Lanes 3 & 6 were left open. The teams start and finish at the “finish line.” Typically
only a total team time is available for the race (splits are typically not tracked). Hurdle

crews are needed to make sure accurate heights and spacings are used, and to reset any
hurdles that are moved / banged during the competition. The 2007 results follow:

M50-59 4 x 100 Meter Shuttle Hurdle Relay (36” H):
Stanley Druckrey of Team A took the lead at the first leg and Team A never gave
up the lead. Team C and Team Shore AC traded places several times making for a very
exciting race.

1^st Team A: Stanley Druckrey; Russell Jacquet-Acea; Robert Zahn; and James Broun    

1:04.78

2^nd Team C: Bill Phillips; Joseph Kammer; Bill Pontius; and Ozzie Binion   

1:16.70

3rd Shore Athletic Club of New Jersey: Al Cestero; Rick Lapp; David Friedman; and 

    Philip Bujalski     1:20.38    (Shore Athletic Club – M50-59 club record)

M50-59 Alternates & injured:  Ivan Black, Robert McDaniel, William Murray, 

    Tony Plaster and Parker White.

M40-49 4 x 110 Meter Shuttle Hurdle Relay (39” H):

Team B and Team D traded the lead several times, with Robert Stanley of Team B 

running a strong last leg to take the win.

1^st Team B: Timothy Mcmahon; Jeff Brower; James Smith; and Robert Stanley   

1:12.65

2^nd Team D: Michael Jones; Kerry Sloan; Jeffery Davison; and Frank Santora   

1:18.68

M40-49 Alternates & injured: David Ashford, Eugene Anton, and Gail Sterling.

The twenty hurdlers that competed in the Shuttle Hurdle Relay were from ten different
states and several were past & present gold medal winner at the Masters National
Championships.

Why are alternates required for the relay? Injuries and schedule conflicts are

common during a Masters Track & Field meet. This event survived injuries to
five athletes that had originally planned to compete in the Shuttle Hurdle Relay.
Alternates are typically assigned to a particular team, but due to the amount of
potential injuries and schedule conflicts maybe a pool of alternates might be
another possible solution to make sure there are four hurdlers per team when the
gun goes off.

Why was the event run? Hurdlers rarely have an opportunity to run a four person
relay with hurdles. Most hurdlers shared stories of running them in high school or
college but not since.

Past Stories of Masters Shuttle Hurdle Relays:

Other stories shared by two Masters Hurdlers that have been
involved with Masters Track & Field for some time are: one Masters Shuttle Hurdle
Relay was run in California many years ago (sorry I have no further details),
another Masters Shuttle Hurdle Relay was run several years ago on the east coast
(I believe this was a M50 race, sorry I have no further details). Recently a
4 x 110 Meter Masters Shuttle Hurdle Relay M40-49 (39” H) was completed
April 22, 2006 in Mesa, Arizona in a time of 1:12.30. These are the only Masters
Shuttle Hurdle Relay races that I have been able to track down at this point.

Additional information can be found on-line at:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2007/USAMastersOutdoorTFChampionships

and

http://www.woodhurdles.com/ShuttleHurdleRelay/1.html

August 2007 Masters Meet:

Few Shuttle Hurdle Relays are run outside of the U.S., hence it was interesting
that we received interest from one Canadian woman athlete. Unfortunately

we did not have enough woman to form two woman’s teams in the same age
brackets. On the M60+ side, we did not have enough available M60-69 hurdlers to
form two M60-69 teams either. Thank you to all the athletes for your interest and
support that fell into these groupings.

August 2007 Open Meet in Sweden:

Obtained the following information via an August 11, 2007 email

from “Presschief DN Galan” for their August 2007 meet:    “Hi Jeff,

Yes we did have the shuttle relay and it was very well received by 

the spectators - 15 319! USA with Ron Bramlett, Anwar Moore, David

Payne and Aries Merritt won in 53,36. Sweden, (Dennis Acson, Robert 

Kronberg, Rafael Askros, Joachim Blaschke was second, (57,03) and 

Finland, (Markus Vilen, Juha Sonck, Jyri Linden, Joona-Ville Heinä) 

third with 57,26. I think we may have it again next year! . . . .”

Just an Idea:

One idea that might work when we have interest but not enough in the same age
bracket is to run a mixed-age race but this would require many additional hurdle
heights and many hurdle-spacing in the same race. The best distance for a mixed
age bracket race would probably be 60 meters such as run indoor, otherwise there
would also need to be several start and finish lines (80, 100 and 110 meter)
. . . just an idea . . .

Any questions or updates? Please contact Jeff at jad-calif@cox.net
P.O. Box 8031, Laguna Hills, CA 92654

http://www.woodhurdles.com

Shuttle Hurdle Relay

W30-39	4 x 100 M (33")
W40-49	4 x 80 M (30")
W50-59	4 x 80 M (30")
W60 +	4 x 80 M (27")

M30-39	4 x 110 M (39")
M40-49	4 x 110 M (39")
M50-59	4 x 100 M (36")
M60-69	4 x 100 M (33")
M70-79	4 x 80 M (30")
M80 +	4 x 80 M (27")

Accumulative Hurdle Spacing
The following link includes accumulative spacing in between the start line,
to each hurdle, and to the finish lines for all of the masters hurdle events:
http://www.woodhurdles.com/ShuttleHurdleRelay/3.html
or as an Excel file:
http://www.woodhurdles.com/Hurdle-Spacing.xls

For those that are interested, the following website link includes some
additional information on past Shuttle Hurdle Relay events:
http://www.woodhurdles.com/ShuttleHurdleRelay/2.html