Saturday 8 November
By Louise Head
Often the unsung heroes of sporting events are the support personnel that keep events running smoothly.
With over 13,000 participants actively competing over nine days there are bound to be a few injuries.
Luckily the Jupiters Pan Pacific Masters Games has over 150 trained sports medicine support staff on hand to ensure all the athletes are looked after.
Peter Felton, a full time first aid provider and sports trainer has become a familiar face at the Jupiters Pan Pacific Masters Games.
Peter has been travelling down from Ipswich every two years for the past seven Games.
“We come down every Games and we stay down here on the coast for the week,” Peter said.
“It’s a good atmosphere and it’s good seeing the older age groups staying active.
“It’s great to have people down here who can look after them and relate to them.
“I travel around to see the other sports trainers at the other venues to see what injuries they’ve had and to catch up with people from years gone by.
“It’s amazing to see the same faces year in year out and then they remember you too.”
A good day for the sports medicine crowd is a quiet day, but Peter admits they have seen some nasty injuries.
“Last time I did the cycling for the Masters Games at the road races we had some broken collarbones and dislocated shoulders and broken noses at the rugby league.”
“But the most common injuries across all the sports are rolled ankles and muscle strains.
“The brain still thinks it’s 20 but the body’s not.”
Peter admits that it’s the atmosphere and competition which continues to bring him back to the Gold Coast every two years.
“The party atmosphere and the comradery between the different sports,” Peter said.
“I was over at baseball and some of the softball, hockey and netball girls were coming along to cheer on people from the same clubs.
“Once one sport is finished, it’s not a case of ‘okay lets go home’, a lot of them actually go to the different venues and cheer other people on, which is great to see, it’s why we’re all here.”
The new system was born here and filagra this is not something that we would like to see. Caverta whilst better in some elements but not important for us.
