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By
Cyd Zeigler
Jr.
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Veatch sets world record; Tewksbury sets
Canadian record: The marquee matchup on
Wednesday was at the pool in the 100-meter
backstroke, pitting swimming rivals Mark
Tewksbury against the United State's Dan Veatch.
It was Tewksbury who won the race in 1:01.6, a
Canadian age-group record, two seconds ahead of
Veatch. However, both men won gold medals as
they race in separate age divisions: Tewksbury
is 38 and Veatch is 41.
On Thursday, Veatch set a new world record for
the 40-44 age category in the 200-meter
backstroke, with a time of 2:14.83. "I'm really
excited to have broken this record and to find
myself in the pool with my good friend and
competitor, Mark Tewksbury," Veatch said after
his record-setting performance.
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Still running at 81: Len Tritsch
(pictured, right) has been competing in track
since 1939 when he was a freshman in high
school. He said he had the third-fastest time as
a junior in high school in the 880 in 1942, at
1:57. In college, the 400 meters was his
strongest race.
He's here at the Outgames competing in track
again at the age of 81. But, how many races he
would be able to complete came into question
earlier this week when he fell while running the
200 meters. He broke three ribs and he has
gashes on his face and knees.
Tritsch is also the coach of the Seattle Front
Runners. He calls himself a "task master," and
at least one of his young pupils, Ryan Sambella
(pictured, left), agrees with him.
"He has it planned down to the minute," Sambella
said. "I've learned a lot from him."
Tritsch, who had been to the three previous Gay
Games, chose the Outgames this time around, he
said because of "politics. I liked the
organization of Montreal from the very start.
There's a difference in philosophy between the
Outgames and the Gay Games. To me, the Gay Games
is a top-down organization, and the Outgames
have been more inclusive." When he chose to come
to the Outgames, the rest of the Seattle Front
Runners followed him.
Tritsch is grading these Outgames an A-minus. He
says there are a couple little details that
could have been better, but they've been great
overall. Sambella, who had never been to the Gay
Games, gives the Outgames an A-plus: "It's the
best experience of my life."
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Japan heads into soccer finals: The
soccer finals on Friday will pit the favored
Paris team, which won the A-division at the last
IGLFA championships, against the Japan Samurai,
who won the B-division at the last
championships. But this Japan team isn't quite
like the last one; this one features six players
from Japan plus players from Spain, Denmark,
Germany, Australia, and the United States.
Rune Madsen is one of the Danish players. He
said he "wanted to play with Denmark, but
Denmark didn't send many people." He said he's
been "delighted" to play for Japan.
Riki Inamura, who lives in Kyoto, is one of the
Japanese players on the team (most of the
Japanese players live in Tokyo). He said that
most men who are gay in Japan are completely
closeted as it is not very accepted by the
traditional culture. However, gay sex is legal
there.
Inamura said soccer is very popular in Japan,
and that most boys there choose to play either
baseball or soccer when they are kids. He said
this has made it a lot easier to build a gay
team than you might think.
Japan beat Seattle in the semifinals, 2-1.
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A nonsensical official at tennis: After
four wonderful days at the tennis venue at
Claude-Robillard Sports Complex, finally a brain
fade by the organizers. My friend Mat Bergman
was playing his B-division semifinal match on a
court that was surrounded by fence and one empty
court. I sat on a bench on the far side of the
court that was abutting his court to watch him
play; only one other person was watching the
match. An official came over and told me that I
couldn't sit there because they needed to keep
the second empty court available for other
matches they might start; I had to sit on the
other side of the chain-link fence.
I begrudgingly went on the other side of the
fence, and I was followed by the official
carrying one of the two players' chairs from the
court he had kicked me off of so I would have
something to sit on. Now, it's nice and all that
he brought me the chair; but, if they were so
concerned about keeping the court ready for a
match, why did they take one of the players'
chairs that they would have needed for a match?
It just didn't make any sense.
During my friend's match, on the other hand, a
volunteer in a yellow shirt started walking
around the court in the middle of a game.
Slowly. When someone asked him to hurry up (he
wasn't going anywhere and had, in fact, walked
out of his way to interrupt the match), he
didn't respond at all but kept walking at the
same pace. The game stalled for about 30 seconds
while this dumbass simply strolled around the
court. I don't know if all of the people working
tennis today were hungover or what, but it was a
little odd.
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Mat B. bids adieu to tennis: By the way,
Mat (from above) finally lost in his
Cinderella quest for gold, 6-1, 7-5, to another
unseeded player, C. Parent, who is clearly the
best player in the tournament. Mat gets a bronze
medal for making it to the semifinals; if you
had told the two of us last Saturday that he was
going to medal, I think he in particular would
have told you you were crazy. Thank you, Mat, for giving me someone to cheer for his
week (even if it did mean getting up before 8
a.m. every morning)!!
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Everyone's a TV star: One of the special
touches that I have appreciated most about this
week has been the Jumbotrons around the city
showing footage from the week's events. They're
at many of the venues, on St. Catherine Street,
at the athletes village at Viger Square, and
other locations. It's helped make this event
very special.
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The special bus: Something else I've
really appreciated has been the special buses
the city has running at some Metro stops. These
buses take you directly to the venues that are
accessible by the subway stop. It has just been
really nice trying to get to a couple venues and
finding buses literally waiting for me as I got
out of the subway.
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Billiards: I stopped in on billiards this
afternoon. The mood of the place was much more
subdued than I had thought it would be. And let
me tell you: A couple of the hottest guys in
these Outgames are billiards players; no joke.
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"The Front Runner" draws a crowd:
Patricia Nell Warren, author of the landmark
book "The Front Runner," spoke at the Outgames
boutique on St. Catherine Street this afternoon.
A few dozen people stopped by to hear here speak
and to meet her. I stood there for about 20
minutes as folks came through and got their book
signed. All of them seemed to have a deep
connection to the book or the author. One of
them was there getting the book signed for his
partner, "the athlete in the family," who will
be running the marathon on Saturday; a woman was
there because her partner, a runner, couldn't
be; a teacher in the Netherlands hopes to use
her upcoming book, a collection of her writings
for Outsports, to educate his students.
It has been neat following Patricia a bit the
last couple days and seeing the response so many
have to her. Of course, the most-asked question
from the interactions I heard: "When is the
'Front Runner' movie going to be made?"
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Choral attendance: I ran into Mark Kari,
aka Canmark on the Outsports discussion board,
at Patricia's book signing. He got in yesterday
from Toronto. He said he went to the choral
event Wednesday night and it was packed to the
gills. He said it looked sold out, and that the
place held between 800 and 1,000 people. I guess
someone's watching.
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Straight but competing: Straight athletes make up 5% to 10% of the
estimated 12,000 participants in Montreal,
organizers said. This led to a story in the
Montreal Gazette, where we found this
amusing anecdote:
Before Alexandre Pare signed up to run in the
Outgames, he did some checking.
The 35-year-old kinesiologist and personal
trainer wanted to make sure the Outgames would
not be "a bunch of clowns in tutus and high
heels" - not that there's anything wrong with
that, he added. He just wanted a serious
athletic challenge.
Pare, who lives on the South Shore, went to the
website of Gay Games VI, held in Sydney,
Australia, in 2002. The runners there were
top-notch, he said.
The Outgames are a world-class competition right
here in Montreal, he said. Signing up was easy
because participants did not need to qualify, he
said.
On Monday, Pare ran the 100 metres in 11.62
seconds, besting 40 competitors and winning the
gold medal in his age group. On Sunday, he won
the silver in the 4x400-metre relay.
He hopes to reach the podium again after another
relay tomorrow.
"The only thing is, when they put the medal
around my neck, the guy went to kiss me (on the
cheek)," Pare said.
"I just thought, 'Hey, men kiss in Russia all
the time.' " |
Track and field
(44 photos)
Diving
(27 photos)
Swimming
(52 photos)
Beach volleyball
(39 photos)
Powerlifting
(19 photos)
Rowing
(65 photos)
Water polo
(11 photos)
Wrestling
(24 photos)
Tennis
(18 photos)
Opening cermonies
(59 photos)
Soccer
(12 photos) |
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