Asia Masters Athletics Championships
Path of
Athletic Immortality
The exploits of well-celebrated
sports icons usually leave a lasting memory to a lot of people, mostly sports
fans. But when these sports heroes go into retirement, most of the time nothing
is heard of them after. Often, the assumption is, after relinquishing their
god-like sporting prowess they become inactive normal individuals, succumbing
to the ravages of sedentary lifestyle. They become mere mortals, so to speak.
On September 19, this belief
will be dispelled as the 19-strong Philippine team composed of mainly former
national athletes will battle it out with the rest of Asia in the 18th
Asia Masters Athletics Championships in Kitakami City, Japan.
The
Asia Masters Athletics Championships is a biennial athletics championships in
Asia participated in by athletes over the age of 35. It is the Asian version of
the World Masters (formerly Veterans) Athletic Championships inaugurated in
1975 held every two odd-numbered years. The 1st World Masters/Veterans Athletic
Championships were held in Toronto, Canada in 1975. Hari Chandra from
Singapore, found himself attending it. At these Championships he met Japanese
participant Mr. Hideo Okada, the then President of Nippon Turtles. They met again
in Gotenberg Sweden (2nd masters) and decided to
organize a version of the Championships on the Asian level. On return to
Singapore, Mr Hari Chandra contacted Milkha Singh of India, and the three of
them met at Christchurch (NZ) in 1981, and as a result the 1st Asia
Championships were held in Singapore in August 1981.
The Philippine participation in AMAC could be traced back to as early as
1996. That was for the 9th AMAC held in October in Seoul, South
Korea. Last year’s Philippine campaign spearhead by athletics legends Elma
Muros-Posadas and Linda Lavandia was a bumper crop. A total of 8 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze medals were bagged by the
unrelenting and gutsy Pinoy tracksters. For this year’s edition of the AMAC,
Team Philippines, supported by L TIMESTUDIO and SOMA sports watch, is eyeing to
match or even surpass this achievement.
So, as to the question what happens to great sports heroes when they step out of the limelight, there could be only one answer. They don’t retire. They become immortals.
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