Deputy CEO for technical and moral support

Occupation: Professor, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Home: Vancouver, British Columbia. Married to Pat Sparkes. Children: Jed and Rebecca

All-time T&F Bests: Ran 19.5 in 180y low hurdles to beat the great Willy Betts at the 1963 Central Michigan University Relays for a Cranbrook School record. Best in 440y hurdles at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., was 53.1. PR in 400m IH was 52.7 a year later in graduate school at UC Berkeley. "The next year, right after my best HH race, I developed Achilles tendonitis and had to take a season off, and never got my edge back. At 26 I accepted the popular wisdom that old men shouldn't try to run fast and gave up the hurdles for 15 years of road running and knee pain."

Masters achievements: "In 1993 I came to my senses, with the help of an understanding coach (Bill Morrish) and team (the UBC runners under his care) and the moral support of some good friends like Grant Lamothe and the late Rich Reinhart, who convinced me that I could run in the U.S. National Masters Championships and not look like a fool. Since then I have been training mainly for the 400m IH and (since turning 50) the 100m HH, in which I can now get my steps again! As a result, I am at least 10 years younger than I was five years ago.

Took sixth in M45 group in 400m hurdles at the 1995 WAVA World Championships in Buffalo, N.Y., with a time of 62.45 (after 62.40 in the prelims.) Won the M50 100m HH (15.98) and the M50 400m IH (62.90) at the 1996 Canadian Masters T&F Championships in Victoria, BC, and took silver in the M50 100mH (15.84) and gold in the M50 400m IH (60.72) at the North American/Central American/Caribbean WAVA Championships in Eugene, OR., in August 1996.

Trivia: Jess was unbeaten in the long hurdles at Trinity College except once by an Amherst hurdler and once by Boston University's Dave Hemery, the 1968 Olympic gold medalist for Britain. Jess' masters PR is equivalent to 51.39 for a hurdler between 20 and 30. He hopes to crack 60 in 1997 with an ultimate goal of running under his age in 400m hurdles -- but "I will have to find some good competition in December 2005."

CEO's note: Jess Brewer's legendary masters T&F post on the T-and-F Mailing List helped inspire the CEO to start the Masters T&F Home Page. The good professor has given invaluable technical advice and moral support to the webmaster -- and is the only deputy CEO of the Webmaster TC. His all-purpose training advice was one of the first elements of this Web site.