22 Mar USATF Foundation Awards 46 Masters Travel Grants
PITTSBURGH – The World Masters Athletics Indoor Track & Field Championships is coming to Toruń, Poland on March 26 and the USATF Foundation is once again providing support to U.S. athletes striving to reach the podium. Forty-six of the 240 American Masters athletes heading to Poland will receive a USATF Foundation Masters Grant to help offset the expense of making the trip to compete overseas. The funds for the grants were raised through private donations solicited by a committee of USATF Masters members.
Masters athletes pay their own expenses for national and international competitions and until 2019, top-level medal contenders received no financial assistance with their travel costs. Grants are based on need and podium potential, with a maximum grant of $1000 per athlete. At the last World indoor meet, recipients of grants won nearly 50% of all US medals as the US placed second on the medal table for the first time in Europe.
Included in this year’s American team are several world age group record holders and former WMA Masters athletes of the year, including, Charles Allie, a 75 year old sprinter from Pittsburgh, Carol Finsrud, a 66 year old thrower from Lockhart, Texas, Rachel Guest, a 47 year old combined event athlete from Surprise, Arizona. Also on the US team is Durran Dunn, a 41 year old sprinter from the Atlanta area, best known as “The Freeze” at Atlanta Braves games, and Gloria Krug, a 91 year old entered in seven events and is one of the oldest in the overall competition.
“We are delighted to be collaborating with the USATF Foundation on our WMA Travel Grant Program that proved so successful in 2019. It increases the likelihood that our best athletes can enter these international competitions and show the world that we are the best Masters track & field team in the world,” said Jerry Bookin-Weiner, Chair of the USATF Masters Track & Field Committee.