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Media Contact: Mark Winitz
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FINE PERFORMANCES CAP FIFTY-PLUS 8K RUN AND BAY AREA SENIOR GAMES
Fifty-Plus Honors Peggy Fleming with Zatopek Award
PALO ALTO, Calif. - March 12, 2006 - The 23rd Annual Fifty-Plus Lifelong
Fitness Weekend and its inaugural companion event, the Bay Area Senior
Games, concluded today while showcasing the abilities of hundreds of
senior athletes. Under cool conditions and drippy skies, Emil Magallanes,
50, of Boise, Idaho and Heidi Swan, 52, of Larkspur, Calif. scored almost
uncontested victories in the Weekend's showcase event, the Paul Spangler
Memorial 8-Kilometer Run around the Stanford University campus.
Magallanes' winning time was 28 minutes and 18 seconds. Swan breezed to
victory in 30:42. Both runners were crowned 8K Senior Champions (ages 50
to 59) for the Pacific Association of USA Track & Field. The race serves
as an 8K road championship for the Pacific Association.
Both Magallanes and Swan took leads early in the race and barely looked
back. They soundly thumped the competition among 151 finishers in the
featured event of the day -- the 8K Championship for runners age 50 and
over.
"My plan was just to see how the race shaped up and run my own race. I
felt confident since I've been doing a lot of track workouts," said
Magallanes who is planning to compete in the mile and 3,000-meter events
at the USA Masters Indoor Track and Field Championship in Boston. March
24 through 26.
Behind Magallanes, Fletcher Lesley, 50, of San Francisco, and Lloyd
Stephenson, 51, also of San Francisco, registered a close race for the
runner-up spot. Lesley finished second in 29:06 with Stephenson third in
29:11.
Swan captured the women's crown following impressive age 50-and-over
victories last fall at the USA Track & Field National Masters 10K
Championships, and the Pacific Association/USATF Half Marathon and
30-Kilometer Championships, making her one of the premier U.S. female
runners in the age 50-54 division. Swan's 30:42 time at today's race puts
her among the top half dozen U.S. 8K performers of all time in her
division.
Kim Rupert, 51, of Hillsborough, Calif. secured second place in 33:09.
Karen Kunz, 51, of Folsom, Calif. was third in 33:23
The oldest finishers in the seniors' race were Harold Thurston, 87, of
Los Altos, Calif., who notched a 55:01 finishing time (11 minutes per
mile pace) and 79-year-old Joy Johnson of San Jose, Calif. who ran 52:44.
The all-time oldest finisher in the race's record book is Dr. Paul
Spangler, the veteran, multi-age-group record holder to whom the event
serves as a memorial. Spangler last competed at the Fifty-Plus race in
1993 just before his death at the age of 94.
In the separate 8K race for runners under age 50 -- which also served as
a Pacific Association/USATF Championship -- Kevin Pierpoint, 30, of Palo
Alto, Calif. and Magdalena Lewy Boulet, 32, of Oakland, Calif. emerged
respectively as the men's and women's champions. Pierpoint scored a
winning time of 25:15. Lewy Boulet finished in 27:36. Sissel
Berntsen-Heber (Mill Valley, Calif.) and Jose Aispuro (Freedom, Calif.)
pinned down the masters (age 40-49) wins.
The winners of the companion 5-Kilometer Race Walk were Jack Bray, 73, of
Kentfield, Calif. in 28:33, and Leslie Sokol, 48, of San Jose, Calif. in
28:49.
In conjunction with the Weekend, Fifty-Plus Lifelong Fitness also
conducted the first-ever Bay Area Senior Games today, which offered a
multitude of athletic events including track and field, swimming, tennis,
and table tennis -- all for senior athletes.
Top performers in the track and field competition included: Nadine
O'Connor (age 64, 100 meters, 14.22), Cherrie Sherrard (age 68, shot put,
26 feet, 4 inches), Larry Lettieri (age 58, 100 meters, 12.43), Roger
Tsuda (age 71, 100 meters, 14.00), and Matthew Pruitt (age 58) who won
both the 200-meter (26.26) and 400-meter (59.87) dashes in his age
division.
Several players stood out in the table tennis competition. Byng Forsberg,
80, won his 80s division in the individual round-robin tournament.
According to competition director, Dennis Davis, Forsberg might have
beaten most of the other 25 competitors as well if he had an opportunity
to play against them. Lee Swander, 65, topped his table tennis age
division in both singles and doubles competition, and served as a
tournament volunteer.
Also at the Weekend's festivities, 1968 Olympic figure skating gold
medalist Peggy Fleming was honored as the 16th recipient of the Annual
Emil Zatopek Award bestowed by Fifty-Plus Lifelong Fitness. The honor,
named after the splendid Czech Olympic distance runner, is awarded to
individuals who have attained notable achievements in sports, and in
doing so have inspired others to live a healthy lifestyle.
"Through my skating, I've learned so much about myself. My sport taught
me what I could do with my talents, whether in the rink or in the rest of
my life," said Fleming in an acceptance speech of the Zatopek Award at
the Fifty-Plus Annual Awards Dinner on Saturday. "I think exercise tests
us in so many ways, our skills, our hearts, our ability to bounce back
after setbacks. This is the inner beauty of sports and competition, and
it can serve us all well as adult athletes."
Additional honors awarded at the dinner: Cheryl Sinclair of Pacifica,
Calif. received the 2006 Fifty-Plus Ambassador of the Year Award. Dottie
Phillips of Sunnyvale, Calif. was the recipient of the organization's
Volunteer of the Year Award.
Complete results for the Fifty-Plus Annual Fitness Weekend's athletic
events will be available on the organization's web site: www.50plus.org.
Fifty-Plus Lifelong Fitness is a non-profit, international organization
based in Palo Alto, Calif., with 2,000 members, whose mission is to
provide a longer and more independent lifestyle for adults by expanding
awareness and involvement in health and fitness activities.
The 2006 Bay Area Senior Games are the first in a series of regional
Senior Games leading up to the 2009 National Senior Games. The San
Francisco Bay Area's bid to host the 2009 Senior Games was selected among
ten competing bids by the National Senior Games Association.
Major sponsors help make the Fifty-Plus Fitness Weekend and Bay Area
Senior Games possible: City of Palo Alto Recreation, Classic Residences
by Hyatt in Palo Alto, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto Weekly,
Catholic Healthcare West (CHW)/Sequoia Hospital, and Stanford University
Hospital.