|
by Scott Russell
|
On the fast track, Ida Bettis-Fogle has been hard at work carving out her niche as Queen of Women's five-minute timed footbag consecutive. In early June, she chose the Heartland Regional Footbag Tournament to overtake her record of 784 kicks, brushing the event's next major milestone with 799 kicks in the allotted five minutes. Not to be robbed of the eternal title "First Woman to Break 800," she resumed training immediately.
With her next scheduled attempt set for the World Championships in mid-August, a favorite training drill became timed rallies of 850 kicks. Her elapsed time continued to drop and with only days to go, Fogle managed to eke out 820 unofficial kicks under the five-minute wire. Come game day, near-ideal outdoor conditions compensated in-part for her nervousness and she reset her record at 804. Expecting a second baby in May, Fogle is promising to let this new mark rest for a year or two unless rivals Tricia George or Sam Conlon care to carry the torch in her place.
Oops. Almost forgot. In addition to thanking her husband, she wanted to thank the woman who drove through the parking lot in the middle of her rally, passing close enough to spur an adrenaline rush without actually hitting her.
Although there's big news in the realm of open five- minute timed as well, it doesn't involve a broken record for a change. This is not to say, however, that the event's de facto tyrant, Andy Linder, didn't try. However, despite several failed attempts at breaking his still-standing mark of 1019 set in June of '96, Linder kept a promise he'd made to himself last year by announcing his retirement from competitive footbag at this year's World Championships. While best wishes go out to Andy, it's a dark day indeed for the footbag community, losing one of the premier consecutive kickers of all time and an early pioneer of freestyle.
Due in no small part to his commitment to family, Linder confessed, "I've been going to tournaments with little preparation and have had little success. I realized that I no longer had the available training time to play at the level I want to." Finally hanging up his competitive shoes in preparation for their rightful bronzing, Linder will continue to kick recreationally and maintain a light performance and demonstration schedule.
Having broken, set, and reset virtually all of the game's consecutive records at one time or another, he concludes a footbag career of over fifteen years still credited with five of them.
| Singles five-minute timed | 1,019 |
| Doubles distance one-pass | 622 |
| Doubles one-pass | 27,956 |
| Doubles 1-up-5-down | 23,251 |
| Doubles ten-minute timed one-pass | 1,327 |
It's safe to assume that nobody in footbag will miss Linder's contributions more than his long-time consecs partner and friend Ted Martin. Both residing in suburban Chicago, there was seldom a time when a doubles record was credited to one and not simultaneously to the other. Martin grieved his partner's pending retirement last summer in the only way he knew how, by breaking another record.
Close on the heels of Dr. Gary Lautt's open singles consecutive record of 52,355 set last April, Martin scheduled his attempt in conjunction with the 13th Annual Midwest Regional Footbag Championships in mid June. Setting out just after 9:00 a.m., he shackled himself in place for yet another exercise in guru-class concentration.
To the amazement and surprise of nobody, Martin blasted the previous mark,
increasing total kicks by nearly 21% and elapsed time by only 8%. For us regular
folks with humble liberal arts degrees, that translates to 63,326 kicks in 8
hours, 50 minutes, and 42 seconds. In true ironman fashion, Martin walked away
from the task unscathed to finish up preparations for a party he hosted that
evening. Show off. 
[Ed. Note: The latest tally of world records can be found on the
Footbag WorldWide records page, at
<http://www.footbag.org/faq/records.html>.]
