Amy Acuff shooting for 6th Olympics and W40 world record in HJ
In her first competition since 2012, Amy Acuff high-jumped Saturday at an all-comers meet near home in Austin, Texas, clearing 1.82 (5-11 1/2). Not bad for a lady who turns 40 in July. She hopes to be the Jeff Hartwig of 2016. Jeff made the 2008 Beijing team at age 40, vaulting an M40 world record 5.70 meters (18-8 1/2) at the Eugene Trials. But if Amy makes the team and jumps at the Rio Games, she’ll be 41. With help from meet director Seth Brower, I contacted Amy and learned that she’s serious about making a sixth Olympic team. She writes: “I jumped 6-0 and looked decent at 1.88 (6-2). I plan to jump at indoor and outdoor USATF championships. It seems that I am further along than I was at this time in Jan of 2012, so I fully expect to get that Olympic A standard and compete at World Championships this year.”
Photo making the rounds of Facebook shows jumpers Amy and Charles Austin.
Qualifying standard for IAAF Beijing worlds this summer is 1.94 (6-4 1/4). Amy jumped 1.95 in 2012. Her PR is 2.01 (6-7).
If she comes anywhere close after mid-July, she’ll demolish the listed W40 world record of 1.87 (6-1 1/2) by Ukraine’s Iryná Myhalchenko in 2012.
Meet director Seth says Amy is entered in this Saturday’s meet at St. Michael’s Catholic Academy in Austin. So let’s see how she improves.
Here’s the rest of Amy’s note to me, graciously answering a series of questions:
I’m training a lot less, which I feel is key to not getting injured. I’ve also been relying heavily on technology. I have a skill set programming iOS apps, which I have put to use to create a video analysis app called Winning Edge that will be released in about 10 days from now.
I created this for all the athletes like myself who are looking for a winning edge. My favorite features are the ghosting feature for overlaying clips and the velocity tool that gives you your velocity in m/s over a distance on your video.
High jumping remains interesting because there is always room for refinement and improvement. The positions and timing are so precise. It is a lot like golf, but more abusive!
I haven’t seen Charles (Austin) in years, but I refer young high jumpers to him for coaching down there in San Marcos.
I think that women’s HJ world record is ripe and someone will break it soon. Many of the technical event longstanding WRs are being broken or threatened (like men’s pole vault), which I attribute to improved athlete and coaching knowledge through interconnected-ness and technology.
I had asked her about her one-time hope to be the first female 7-footer and why the women’s record was stuck at 2.09 (6-10 1/4).
She referenced American record-holder Charles Austin because I asked her about a photo she appears in. Here’s hoping she’ll join him as a masters record-setter.
5 Responses
Interestingly, people who know her talk about how sweet and gracious she is before they even mention track and field.
She was on the team in 2012 so it isn’t like she has been away for many years and a first meet back performance of 1.82 is promising. Will be cheering for her.
It seems as though another jumper that is in the photo has been overlooked in your caption…albeit a triple jumper. Stacey Bowers (Baylor alum with a PR of 46′ 1″) is surely worthy of mention!
Stacey is 37, but hasn’t jumped in a while. Her bio:
http://www.usatf.org/athletes/bios/TrackAndFieldArchive/2003/Bowers_Stacy.asp
Amy went 1.85 on Saturday, Jan. 24, at another Seth Brower meet — about 6-1.
http://trackforlife.com/results/20150124.htm
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