Para athletes – Against all odds. What about masters athletes?

Our team of para athletes returned from the Asian Para Games in Indonesia with 3 golds, 2 silvers and 5 bronzes. This is a much improved performance over their last outing. Understanding their disabilities and limitations and how hard they have to work to overcome their physical handicaps, their efforts and results are very admirable.
 
Yip Pin Xiu had two golds in swimming and a special award for the ‘World Para Series’ Best Female Athlete for high support needs athletes. The other two gold medal winner was swimmer Toh Wei Soong.
 
The govt has been very positive in supporting and encouraging the para athletes to engage in sports, which is a good thing. Every sport needs encouragement. The normal athletes too were given support by the govt.
Masters athletes – Nobody’s child
 
The only group that is receiving only lip service support is the masters athletes. This group may not be as normal as the young athletes as many of the masters athletes are ageing. Their physical parts are ‘rusting’ and getting brittle and stiff. They need many kinds of supplements and exercises to keep their muscles ‘supple’ and their joints less ‘rough’ to be able to perform the same feat as the younger and normal athletes. They are handicapped in their own ways, and some of their physical conditions are not too far from the para athletes.
 
Imagine uncles and aunties in their 60s, 70s, 80s and more running the sprint, doing high jump, long jump, hurdling etc etc. These activities at these golden ages demand a lot of training, endurance and pains that needed all kinds of pain killers to keep them going. Would the govt seriously consider giving them at least the same support as the para athletes to encourage them to keep on running, jumping and throwing? It needs a lot of drive, determination and training for a 60-90 year old to be running the 100m dash, something the younger athletes took for granted.
 
Some of the masters athletes have spoken to Grace Fu but so far nothing has happened. The masters athletic associations too had made their cases for some support, but it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Why is the govt/SportsSG not showing much concern or interest in supporting the masters athletes other than lip service?
 
For so long, the masters athletes are like nobody’s child. They are left to fend for themselves and to amuse themselves at their own time and cost, living in the fringes of the athletic community. The darlings of the govt/SportsSG are the para athletes. For the record, a total of $250,000 cash rewards were given up in the recent Asian Para Games.
 
Next year there will be an equivalent Asian Masters Athletic Meet in Sarawak, Malaysia. Would the govt think of including this masters athletic competition in the same category as the Asian Para Games and reward the senior athletics with some cash awards for the honours and glory they bring to the country? Or masters athletics can do what they want, nothing to do with the govt or SportsSg, non of their business?
 
This time there will be qualifying time trials for the Asian Masters Meet. Does this mean that SportsSG is changing its mind and taking the masters athletes more seriously? Would the masters athletes be recognized finally? Many have been running for years without any recognition from the state while carrying the nation’s flag.
 
What say you Grace Fu?