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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
'Youngster' challenging
Erwin's recordWAIT. Wait. Hold on. Shhhh!
Can you hear it?
That's right. "Rocky" music.
The soundtrack to what would be Hawaii's biggest sporting event in quite some time.
Tyson?
No, Erwin.
You recall our Erwin Jaskulski, the Masters track champion who set the world record for 100-year-olds in the 100 meters (and later the 200 and 400 as well).
Well, when you're the champ there is always some young kid coming along to take you on.
Meet South Africa's Philip Rabinowitz, 100. "Flying Phil" will run after Erwin's record tomorrow in Cape Town. Preliminary unofficial times say he'll probably break it -- the biggest problem may be meeting all the criteria for getting the feat certified.
(It's tougher than you'd think. You need a wind gauge, and electronic timing, backup hand-held stopwatches, several sanctioned officials, a real event on a freshly measured track ...)
Here is the best part. No matter what happens, Phil has been invited to the Hawaii Senior Olympics in November to take on Erwin. Mano a mano. Champ against champ. Centenarian against centenarian.
"We would cover his accommodations," Hawaii Senior Olympics president and coordinator Mark Zeug said. And Zeug and Co. would also work on sponsors for Phil's airfare.
It would be a race for the ages. And the aged.
And Lord willing -- let's face it, after 100 you generally cut down on making long-term plans -- we're going to get to see it.
"Phil is very keen to go to Hawaii," said South African journalist Eben Human, who has gone from covering the story to serving as Phil's unofficial publicist.
Jaskulski, though an incredible physical specimen, is closing in on 102, and looks it. Rabinowitz, in a recent picture, looks younger than his coach (who is 77)!
(Oh, and for an official world record, Zeug noted, you need a birth certificate, too.)
Phil, who recently joined Nelson Mandela in Olympic Torch carrier duty, is a celebrity. Something like flying across the world to Hawaii for the Sprint of a Century is right up his alley.
Erwin, who has a wry sense of humor, shuns attention. He'd rather just run.
"To me," Zeug said, "his response (in turning down) Letterman and Leno was classic: 'To go all that way just to talk?' "
Phil is a competitive race walker who smoked until he was 70 and fled Lithuania for Johannesburg when he was 21.
Erwin is a shy man with an easy smile, an Austrian who likes his classical music and his fitness routine and has lived in Hawaii for 50 years.
"Erwin and Phil look like they could be brothers," Zeug said.
They are.
And this would be a chicken skin event.
"This possibility is not something that must be seen as a race," Human said, "rather a celebration of the human spirit."
("Rocky" music.)
It seems that Flying Phil is most excited not about racing Erwin, but meeting him.
Every young kid has his hero.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com