We swiped all the 4 x 100m relays except for one when our best, the 45-49 men team raced against world masters champion Japan. We were leading by 15m at least in the last leg but their last runner, claimed to have broke the 10s mark caught up to beat Takayuki, our Japanese runner by a nose.
There were several other photo finished races. I lost my silver in the 60m dash to Salam whose nose was a big longer. He clocked 9.53s and mine was 9.54s. The gold went to Tang Weng Fei, ex national hurdler clocking 9.13s.
Charles Ang also lost his 200m silver by a whisker. He blamed it on the fact that he could have won if only he had put on a bra.
We had the cheap thrill of beating a 65 year old ex Olympian from India who participated in the Moscow Olympic and has a PB of 10.5s for the 100m. Myself and my team mate, Salam, both 69 going 70, out ran him in the 60m dash. Nice feeling.
We are still counting the medal tally and tomorrow is another day of excitement. The weather after lunch was much cooler, saved by a short downpour. And yes, lightning warning came on and the events were halted for an hour.
Fatimah Lateef was the Guest of Honour and gave a short speech about how great it was to run in the masters and all the politically correct words, about how good it was to be healthy and still able to run around in the stadium instead of being bedridden and sickness ridden. It is no joke and quite amazing to see so many seniors running around happily like children in the expanse of the stadium. Do not squander away your health, take good care of it, or you would be paying heavily trying to get it back in vain.
Big question, when would the govt give due recognition to the masters athletes for keeping themselves fit and running for the glory of the country? More than 10 countries took part in this Meet, Taiwan, Hongkong, Japan, India, Sri Lankan, Philippines, Brunei, Poland, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia were all here.
Today is the final day and I will be running in the 100m this afternoon.