Jonathan Males | Sportscene - The Masters Games are held every four years, attracting around 25 000 athletes aged from 35 to over 90, competing in 40 sports. Ivrea Canoe Club hosted the slalom event, where over 100 paddlers took part on 7 August.

Roberto D’Angelo set an open course, satisfied that the fast and steep Grade 3 / 4 water would provide plenty of challenge without needing tricky gate combinations.  He was right, with the best paddlers putting down fast times and others satisfied just to make it down without a swim.

Germany provided the most competitors, and the best coordinated team uniform, but there was a good mix from European countries, some from the US, and from the southern hemisphere paddlers from Australia, Brazil and New Zealand. 

Those with long memories, or students of slalom history, might pick out Norbert Sattler (72 Olympic silver, 73 World Champion) or Harald Gimpel (72 Olympic bronze), while from more recent years Olympians Marcela Sadilova, Kordula Striepecke, Jaroslav Pollert, and Jiras Marek all returned to race.  And a big call out to 70 + paddlers Wolfgang Ernst and Lutz Peiler from Germany, who proved that age is no barrier to enjoying slalom racing.

Medals were awarded in each class in 5-year age bands, which meant that the race followed a classic format of a practice run then two race runs, with the best run counting. Fastest overall was Brazilian 35+ kayaker Gustavo Selbach, just ahead of Belgium’s Ingo Kriesinger (45+) and Friedermann Barthel (30+) from Germany.  Fastest C1 was Ramon Petry (35+) from Brazil, followed by Czech Jaroslav Pollert (40+) and Vladimir Bykadorov ((45+) from Belarus.  Despite rolling on her run, Marcela Sadilova (45+) was the fastest woman on the day, ahead of Kordula Striepecke  (50+) and Scotland’s Jane Gibson (55+).   Pollert and Jiras showed their class winning C2 (35+) ahead of Germany’s Huebbers and Raumann (40+) and Italy’s Boz and Cozzarin (35+).

The race was over all too soon, an inspiring reminder of just how wonderful our sport is.  As a competitor, I really enjoyed being back on an international start-line, feeling the challenge of racing against so many other kayakers of a similar age who had clearly trained hard and prepared well.  I regretted a time loss on gate 15, but my best run was good enough for second place in K1 50+.  Even on a dream run I don’t think I would have beaten Germany’s Sven Peiler, but I’ve got four years before the next Masters Games in Auckland to work out how to make up that time!

Links

• Results: www.torino2013wmg.org/sport/canoe-kayak
• Photos: http://sportduepuntozero.it/foto.php?foto=1&album=72157634971847310
• Videos: http://sportduepuntozero.it/video.php?id=joMiSTPloQE
• Jonathan Males: www.facebook.com/DiaryOfAMiddleAgedKayaker