2024 Michigan Senior Olympics – Oakland University – 18Aug’24:

I was the only one from the club at this year’s MSO as Jennifer was in Sweden repping the USA at the World Masters Athletics Championships! More on that in a future post hopefully.

Weather-wise, the day called for intermittent rain. We mostly missed it during the morning (nothing during hammer and only a little light rain during shot). Unfortunately, we had a bunch of rain showers in the afternoon during discus. It was heavy enough at times to question just leaving the circles full of water instead of trying to constantly broom it out. Not great conditions for discus but I was happy with how I managed the wet conditions for the most part.

We had a lot more people than normal including throwers from Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in my age group due to it being one of the final qualifying events for the 2025 National Senior Olympics. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a very good day in the circles. I just wasn't well prepared and physically firing on Sunday. As a result of not throwing well and better competition than normal, I was lucky to qualify for next year’s National meet in all 3 events (top 4) and barely came home with any hardware (silver in hammer, bronze in shot). Just didn't have it going today.

While I was disappointed in this performance, the outdoor season wasn’t a total bust. I set a new PR in hammer, was close to my age group PR in discus and exceeded the US Masters All-American Standard for shot put, discus and hammer. (the latter two events only because they reduced the standards a few years ago). That said, I closed the gap on the original hammer standard of 36.00m (0.31m to go). Next year I’ll shoot again for the original standard in all 3! Until then, it’s time to put the toys away and get back to the weight room for me. 😊

Hammer – 107’ 10” (2nd, 55-59yr) 

Shot Put – 36’ 6” (3rd, 55-59yr)

Discus    – 117’ 11” (4th, 55-59yr)

Complete results will eventually post at https://www.michiganseniorolympics.org/summer-games-results. Live results (running events only so far) can be found at https://www.milesplit.live/meets/631619.