ORONO, Maine — After bringing home at least one gold medal in each of his last four trips to the Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships, former Clear Lake High School athlete Mike Curry saw that streak end earlier this month in Orono, Maine, the host of this year”s event.
“My competition was really strong and I got my butt kicked hard,” said the 40-year-old Curry, who now resides in Elk Grove along with his wife, Gina.
Curry entered five events — 35-pound weight, shotput, discus, hammer throw and javelin — and his best effort, by far, came in the 35-pound weight throw.
“I was in first with 13.19 meters until the last round of throws,” Curry said.
That”s when veteran thrower Glenn Thompson of Harrisburg, Pa., who was sitting in second place at 13.01 meters, uncorked a toss of 15.38 meters.
“He blew me out of the water,” Curry said. “My jaw just dropped.”
Curry”s next best finish was a third in the hammer throw with a toss of 39.73 meters.
“And I got lucky to get that,” said Curry, who said his reliance on sheer strength, which has worked so well in the past, didn”t help him this year. “When I was younger, I was able to muscle it, but I can”t do that as well anymore,” Curry said. “I”m going to switch to a step-in technique which elongates the orbit of your throw and gives you more power.”
In his other events, he finished fourth in the shotput (12.28 meters), seventh in the discus (31.34 meters) and seventh in the javelin (33.48 meters).
While Curry couldn”t bring home a gold medal this year, he didn”t need much time to regroup. He was in action again only a few days later at the National Masters Weight Pentathlon in Spokane, Wash., and the third-ranked Curry finished exactly as ranked — third — to win the bronze medal.
While accumulating points in his five events, he even won the javelin with a toss of 35 meters, which surprised Curry.
“I finally figured out how to throw it … I watched some of the other throwers and changed my grip,” he said.
“Overall I did much better there (in Spokane),” Curry said.
His only regret about the Spokane competition was falling 50 points shy of what he needed to reach the All-American standard for his age.
“What cost me was the 35-pound weight,” said Curry, who scratched on his first throw and came back with a “safe throw” on his second try just to make sure he didn”t scratch again.
On his third and final throw, Curry said he uncorked a good one, but it ended up trickling out of bounds.
Curry did reach the All-American standard (2,800 points) last month at a pentathlon in Reno, finishing with 2,881.
Curry, a sports medicine instructor at Oak Grove High School, plans to take some time off to rest before his next competition.
“Right now I”m tired and I need rest,” Curry said. “I also need to lose 25 pounds, get down to about 275-280. That”s my goal and my coach (Ken Norlen) has already got me on the right track.”
