Article on Master's Vaulter in Australia

[rainbowgirl28]

This is from a couple years ago

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/ ... 95619.html

Being 90 and finding a sporting soulmate
October 12 2002




Vic Younger and Moises Labbe can't talk to each other and have battled it out in six events, yet they are "amigos para siempre".


In lane one: Vladimir or "Vic" Younger from Elsternwick. Ninety years young, a former Swanston Street furrier, masseur and naturopath who got into athletics after he retired and decided that "instead of going to the nursing home I would go to the sports field". Before a news conference he combs his hair back, rocker-style.

In lane two: Moises Zamorano Labbe, also 90, a former taxi driver from Santiago, who says he won his first race as a one-year-old, when he beat his mother. He is going to keep running until . . . he grins and points to the sky. Hair-wise he hasn't much on top but below his shoulders falls a splendid ponytail. In six events at the World Masters Games the Australian and the Chilean have gone head to head. Younger won gold in the triple jump, shotput, javelin and discus; the Chilean beat him in the 100 metres and long jump.

But who's counting? Mr Younger and Senor Zamorano Labbe don't speak a word of the same language but they can't stop grinning at each other.

How would they describe their rivalry? "Amigos para siempre!" says the Chilean, his eyes shining. Friends forever.

The perfect weather at Olympic Park yesterday made everyone happy at the third-last day of the Games, which has events in all age categories from 30 to 95-plus. "Are you enjoying yourself?" one elderly volunteer asks another. "I always enjoy myself; that's what life's about," the man replied. "Ooh yes," the woman agrees. "Life's there to enjoy."

People speak like this a lot at the Games. There is a lot of talk about "getting my knees done" and a lot of flashing rows of perfect white teeth.

At 11.30am, Younger begins his assault on the world record for the men's 90-plus pole vault. (Zamorano Labbe pulled out of the event - late scratchings are common.)

Competing in the 70-plus event Younger broke the world record of 1.20 metres on his second jump. The Ukrainian Sergei Bubka's men's world record of 6.15 metres was looking safe. All the same, Younger cleared the bar with easy grace, loping up, hanging in the air as if he had all the time in the world, then remembering to flick the pole away before he fell to earth.

At his third jump he set a new world record of 1.30 metres. How high would he go?

But then he stopped.

"He wants to set a world record at another time," his grandson and coach, Matthew Younger, 20, explains. "He wants to get another certificate."

That will be at the Victorian Masters Championship in February. Put your house on him now.

Not that he needs any more medals - he's been winning them at masters and veterans championships since he won weight-lifting gold in the United States in 1980.

His holiday unit in Surfers Paradise has a room covered in medals and certificates.

After his pole-vault world record, journalists ask Younger how he feels. The champion is nonchalant. "It is not the first time. Don't forget, I have 16 world record certificates on the wall," he says in his thick Russian accent.

Why pole vaulting? "Other old people have taken up smoking. I have taken up pole vaulting." The jokes are flowing: "The first three signs of old age are loss of memory . . . and I forget the other two."

The public address system keeps drowning out his words but he works it into his routine: "It is like a mother-in-law."

At 3pm, after the long jump, Younger and Labbe are sitting, waiting to get their medals. They're laughing, cupping each other's head, giving each other a gangster handshake. Sitting next to them is Dennis Russell, who thinks he has just won gold in the 80-plus long jump "but I won't believe it till they give it to me".

"It's good to be alive," he says. "You wouldn't be dead for quids."