Masters on way to be top sports

MARYBOROUGH will become the sporting capital of the world this weekend as far as plenty of seasoned campaigners are concerned.

The second and biggest weekend of events in the 19th annual Maryborough Masters Games bursts into life today.

Eleven sports, including swimming, football, bowls, athletics, golf and cycling, will be contested by athletes aged from 30 to 80.

One of the sports proving to be a big drawcard is football.

Mel Downes, who will be one of the referees in action at Federation Park over the weekend, said there were plenty of players coming to town aiming to win Masters gold.

“We've got more than 200 players coming from all over the place - that's great news,” Downes said.

“There will be 12 men's teams and five women's teams giving it their best shot.

“We're certainly happy with the numbers we've got.”

Another organiser happy with the number of entries he had received was swimming's Kevin Walsh.

The event was cancelled 12 months ago through a lack of competitors but Walsh said that's not the case this time around.

“We've got 65 entries - the best it has been for a number of years, I can tell you,” Walsh said.

Almost 1000 competitors took part in the Maryborough Masters Games last year, a figure officials are hoping will be around the same this time.

The best ever turnout came in 1994 when 1600 used the event as preparation for the World Masters Games in Brisbane.