Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 8, 1990 TAG: 9007080087
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Carter Athletic Center at North Cross was a site for volleyball and basketball, but a spectator there showed what this festival is about.
It was late afternoon, torrid outdoors, steamy indoors. But Johnathan Smith proudly wore his zipped-up State Games jacket, over which were draped two gold medals.
"I got them for running," said Smith, 7, who also was wearing a St. Louis Cardinals' baseball cap that was several sizes too big.
Johnathan will be a third grader in the fall at Roanoke's Westside Elementary. He won his medals in the 100 and 400 meters earlier in the day at Salem High. He didn't know his times. He didn't particularly care.
"The 400, that's where you go all the way around the track one time," he said, bubble gum bouncing between his teeth.
What's more fun, running or winning?
"Winning," he said.
\ By 9:15 a.m., Louise Martin of Appomattox had reached her goal for the day. She had run the five-mile road race four seconds faster than her desired time of 50 minutes.
Martin is 73. The retired Appomattox High teacher and coach has been running since she was 55, and she was the oldest woman in the field of 380 runners.
"My husband, Carter, is a retired farmer, which means he is still farming," said Martin, munching on post-race fruit at Victory Stadium.
The Carters live on a 300-acre farm.
"Can you believe this? If my husband needs to leave a vehicle out away from the house, he has me take it out there because he knows I'll run back," she said.
At the Virginia Golden Olympics last month in Danville, Martin won five gold medals and a silver. She has qualified for the U.S. National Senior Olympics for the third time.
"I'd like to tell people that are 55 and over that they can still get out and do things," Martin said. "Even if they don't want to run, we have competition in horseshoes, canasta, bridge and other things.
"Recreation departments can tell people how to get into the Golden Olympics. I started running because I needed something to keep me busy. I'm still doing it, and I'll be 74 in September."
\ Many of the venues are well-marked with signs. But at 10:30 a.m., I went to the Roanoke YMCA to watch handball.
A man at the desk gave me directions to the courts, but the directions were more confusing than fencing competition. No signs anywhere. I never found handball.
\ The archery competition is being held in a field on McClelland Street in Salem. Radford University assistant sports publicist Mike Ashley, a Salem native who is a volunteer in the media center, had the best directions to archery:
"Just follow the arrows," he said deadpan.
\ Andy East was warming up for his judo competition at about 10:45 a.m. at the old Jefferson High Gym. As East talked about his new sport, Eugene Chung checked in next to him.
Chung, a football lineman at Virginia Tech, outweighed East by 240 pounds. Andy was the lightest competitor, at 39 pounds. He is 5 and will be a first-grader at Glen Cove Elementary in Roanoke County.
"I like judo because it's fun, and because you get to do flips and stuff," said Andy, who later won a bronze medal in the 5-6 age class.
And what about when he gets flipped?
"It feels a little good," he said. "It hurts a little, too."
\ The fencing competition has as many top state competitors as any sport in the Games. Larry Pinkus of Richmond, the sport coordinator and a three-time Virginia champ in the saber, was among 10 at Hollins College who have fenced in the U.S. nationals.
"The thing is to watch only one fencer at a time," said Pinkus, a biochemist, when asked how the neophyte should view the competition. "And watch the fencer's arm.
"If it's extended, he's attacking. If he steps forward but his arm is back, that's not the same. And if a fencer hits his opponent in foil or epee, the scoring apparatus light goes on."
Pinkus said the United States fares well in fencing internationally, despite the sport's amateur status.
"It's a very popular sport in Europe," he said. "In some countries, there are professional fencers. That's what they do for a living. And the Italian government has a national lottery to support its team."
\ Charles Richards finished fifth in the road race Saturday morning, then went out and ran between two and three miles on Roanoke streets.
Then, the Crozet resident drove to Salem High, entered the 1,500-meter run and won a gold medal. "My goal is to get an endorsement contract with a running shoe company," he said.
Richards, 23, was a three-time state Group A cross country champ and a two-time state Group A champ in the mile and two-mile at Buffalo Gap High. He attended Lynchburg College for two years, left for personal reasons, and now supports his running as a groundskeeper at Birdwood Country Club in Charlottesville.
Richards' time in the five-mile road race was 26 minutes, 32 seconds. He won the 1,500 in 4:17.8.
"The five-mile is a better race for me," said the dark-haired runner, who is his own coach. "I entered both races because when a race like the five-mile is ending, I tend to get stronger."
Richards quit running for two years after he left college. He has been back on the road and track for about a year. He plans to try the New York City Marathon - "my first marathon" - in October to get a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon in the spring.
"I thought I went out too fast in the five-mile race," he said, clutching the blue ribbon that held his track gold medal. "Maybe that made me relax. And when I went on that two- or three-mile cool-down run, I felt like I could win the 1,500."
by CNB