A Marvel With or Without Shoes

Ward Hazen, with shoes on, clearing a hurdle on the way to a world record in the 60-meter hurdles at the World Masters Athletics indoor championships. There are all kinds of reasons to root for this chiropractor. Photo by Shaggysphotos.com.

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By Ray Glier

Ward Hazen, 70, was so lightning fast and dominant in one event he could afford to do the preposterous in another event in the Pentathlon at the World Masters Athletics indoor championships.

He threw the shot put in his socks.

“I spin when I throw the shot, but with the shoes I was wearing it was like spinning on ice,” said Hazen, who is from Stratford, Ontario and is well-acquainted with the trouble of doing anything on ice without the benefit of skates.

“There is a rule you can’t throw in open-toed shoes, but no rule you can’t throw bare-footed. I took off my shoes and socks. The officials asked me to wear socks for hygiene, so I put on my socks. They were a lot grippier than the shoes.”

The shot put was the third event of the five-event Pentathlon and Ward still took third place with a heave of 32 feet, 3½ inches. 

“It probably cost me 100 points,” he said about throwing in his socks.

Hazen didn’t have to reach for a scream pillow over those 100 points. His medal chances weren't ruined because, with his shoes on, he was overwhelming.

In the first event of the Pentathlon, the 60-meter hurdles, Ward ran a indoor world-record 9.37 seconds (M70). The win ignited his run to a gold medal in the Pentathlon with 3,660 points, 164 better than runner-up Bertil Ljungqvist of Sweden.

The Swede won both the shot and high jump, but Ward’s blazing start in the hurdles created a points gap between the two that couldn’t be made up.

Here is what supersizes Hazen’s story for Geezer Jock tracksters.

At the WMA event in Alachua County, Fla., Ward said there was a “fabulous starter” for the 60-meter hurdles.

“He didn’t hold you too long in the set, and he used a gun,” Hazen said. “When you're a sprinter, you know, if I come up behind you and I set off a gun, you're gonna jump straight up.

“At some past WMA events they say ‘runners on your marks, set’ and they hold too long. Here, they had a loud gun and now for me, that's a big advantage, because my nervous system jumps.

“I got a great start because of that loud gun. Everything came together. The record was 9.4. I ran 9.37, which is a half-step. It was also a very, very fast track.”

Here is more insight.

At 70 years old, the height of the hurdles comes down to 30 inches in Masters track. Hazen said he studied videos of women hurdlers because there were more races to watch with hurdles at 30 inches. He also said the women were “snappy and quick” and he borrowed that mindset. 

“I looked at the best women’s hurdlers, and I watched them in slow motion,” he said. “There's always little corrections in your technique, like in gymnastics. They will all do great, but somebody just has something slightly different; one does something a little better than the others. I looked for that (tweak).”

What else from this chiropractor might be precious to Geezer Jocks? Maybe this.

“I stretch more than anybody else I know,” Ward said. “I'm very flexible, and that prevents injuries. It helped me a lot in the hurdles and the other events. But also, just in general, as we age, we get very stiff, the tendons and our the muscles start to strain.”

It certainly helps, too, that Hazen is a chiropractor and can diagnose and treat his own injuries. When he used ordinary track shoes for jump practice his heel was smashing into the ground so often the bone was damaged.

"It took me a couple of months of treating it and not training to get that fixed," he said. "So I bought actual jump shoes and jump with no pain in my heel at all. But... I jump higher in ordinary track shoes."

Root for Ward for two reasons. One, he has a delightful personality. He said he gave up the Decathlon when he was younger because it didn’t make sense to do 10 events for one medal. (Apparently, he has acquiesced to one medal for five events).

Two, Hazen organizes himself in the morning with a set of first principles.

“I ask God for me to be a better person,” Hazen said. “Seek always to do that which is right and noble. Enrich the poor, raise the fallen, comfort the soulful, shelter the homeless, heal the sick.”

Then, presumably, Ward gets his socks on...and some shoes...and puts those principles to practice makes the world a better place.