MASTERS billing on sport conjures up images of learned and skilled elders in the game.
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The term demands respect.
What they are teaching, the very theme underpinning competition, is about sport for all ages and ability, sport for life or, in the motto of the 1994 World Masters Games in Brisbane, “the challenge that never ends”.
This is a fantastic lesson for a society with overweight concerns and worries about inactivity – particularly for us in Ballarat, a city branded the heart attack capital of Victoria (second worst in Australia) by the Heart Foundation in August.
The lesson is right here, right now.
Ballarat is a busy masters hub.
Cycling Australia Masters Road Championships returned to the region this week and will be out on our famed Buninyong national course – including the notorious repeat climbs up the Midland Highway – this weekend.
Attention moves to Lake Wendouree later in the coming week where the World Rowing Masters Regatta hits the waters.
If you are thinking the meets are all about old people and senior citizen showdowns, then you are wrong.
Generally, masters events across the world start age division competitions for athletes in their late 20s and yes, right through to 80-years-plus categories.
For some sports, like gymnastics, the entry level is younger.
The oldest competitors to have secured seats in rowing events this week is a quartet from Australia, Poland, Russia and Japan born in 1926 – well into their late 80s and obviously still active.
Coveted winners’ medallions are up for grabs in Ballarat but Rowing Australia spokesperson Lucy Benjamin said events were equally about athletes giving their all and having a great sporting time.
“The biggest thing for our world masters regatta is that it is a social event,” Benjamin said.
“The social aspect is just as important, catching up with people you might not have seen since the last games or for years.”
Solid training is still vital in athlete preparations.
St Kilda Cycling Club’s Shane Miller told The Courier his sixth national time trial win, this year in the 35-39-year age category, came down to about 23 minutes on the Burrumbeet course – an impressive race – but was the culmination of three-to-four months’ training.
And he said race winners through to low placings would have undertaken similar regimes.
Masters events are also a celebration of retired elite athletes and a fantastic chance to race alongside them.
The primary condition is athletes must be retired from international competition for at least three years – so do not expect a cyclist like Cadel Evans to ride by any time soon for a masters ride.
Former world masters road champion Roy Clark, 1988 Olympian Stephen Fairless and former pro tour rider Tom Leaper were among the 800 cycling entrants from across Australia on Ballarat roads.
The world rowing will have a distinct Olympic flavour with reunion celebrations at Lake Wendouree, which was the rowing venue for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
Australian rowers from the Melbourne Games will form an eight, as will Japanese rowers and officials from the Games for a row through.
Italian rowers, who remained in Australia after the Games, a Greek rower and a German coxswain are also in the mix to get back out on Lake Wendouree.
Sentiment played a part in luring the world regatta to Ballarat but even more so was the city’s proven and continuing success in hosting major sporting events.
This is only the second time Australia has hosted the world rowing masters – the last was Adelaide in 2007 – and every event last rowing season, including the Victorian Rowing Masters Championships in May, was crucial in the build-up.
Rowing Australia, World Rowing and rowing’s international governing body FISA need to be confident we will get it right.
The flow-on economic effects about the city are impressive, like any major event in town, and also serve as a great promotion for the region.
World masters rowing will draw strong contingents from Japan, Brazil, New Zealand, Latvia, Germany and Great Britain, each representing their rowing clubs rather than nations.
In turn, Ballarat should show its support about the lake, which is said will offer a great festival-like atmosphere.
These athletes can guarantee Ballarat a valuable master class in the benefits of a healthy, active and social lifestyle.
melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au