While the average sports fan rose with difficulty from the couch to fetch another cold beer last Saturday, there was a very special Athletics Championships taking place at the Pilditch Stadium.

The Gauteng North Masters athletics championship was held last Saturday at the Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria.

The event was well-organised and the standard of athletics world class.

A total of 127 women athletes and 156 men between the ages of 30 and 88 competed in the event. The total of 283 athletes made it the biggest Masters championship thus far this year.

The oldest woman athlete was Christie du Plooy. This 85 year old lady competed in the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints. She set two new South African records in the two shorter sprints.

The oldest man was John van de Venter, aged 88. He competed in the 5000 race walk.

The youngest athletes were two 30-year-olds, Christelle Theron and Jean Pierre Zeelie.

The high quality of the athletics dished up at the event was underlined by the 11 national records and one world record that were set.

A former Olympic athlete still taking part in athletics, Shaun Bownes, broke the world record in the 110m hurdles in the event for men 45 – 49 year old. His time was 14, 38 seconds.

Another familiar face at the meeting was that of the legendary hammer thrower Chris Harmse. In his career Harmse won medals in nearly every major athletic event.

Unfortunately he could, on the basis of religious objections, never participate in the Olympics as the the Olympic final was presented on a Sunday every time when he qualified. He refused to participate on a Sunday.

Harmse decided to try for one last time to realise his dream to participate in the Olympics at the age of 43.

Unfortunately, he could not throw the qualifying distance this weekend at Pilditch. He threw only three meters short of the qualifying distance.

However, he has time until July 11 this year to qualify and he has at least five official events to do so, including the African Championships in Durban on 25 June.

According to all the senior athletes, Masters Athletics is a wonderful way of life.

The South African Masters Athletics Championships will also be hosted in Pretoria on 13 and 14 May this year.

The management of Gauteng North Masters invited enthusiasts to support these athletes or to join South African Masters athletics and realise long lost athletic dreams.

Interested parties may also help to support athletes in their preparation for the World Masters Athletics Championships in Perth, Australia from 26 October to 6 November this year.