Kelowna to be represented at World Masters Games

Kovacic and Topic competing in track and cross-country, road races

Two Kelowna athletes will be competing at the World Masters Games in Auckland, New Zealand, next month.

Laurel Kovacic, 56, and Delilah Topic, 37, are in the field for athletics, consisting of cross-country and road races, as well as track and field.

Kovacic will be participating for the first time, but she was in Torino, Italy, for the last Games in 2013, watching her husband play basketball.

At that point, Kovacic was 100 pounds overweight and felt terrible about herself amongst all the athletes. She vowed then that she’d attend as a participant in 2017 in Auckland. Kovacic is down 80 pounds and nearing her goal weight, so she’s extremely excited to do the 10-kilometre run.

Topic is a Type 1 diabetic and is on a continuous insulin infusion pump. This makes managing her health and blood sugars difficult surrounding race day, but she wants to inspire others with Type 1 diabetes to believe that nothing should limit them and that they too can follow their dreams.

More than 23,500 athletes from 100 different countries have registered for the World Masters Games, the largest multi-sport event in the world. In terms of numbers, it is larger in scale than the Olympics.

The largest contingent will come from Australia — expected to be 6,996 — with Canada and the United States next in line for registration totals at 2,000 and 1,260, respectively.

The ages range from 25 to 101, the eldest athlete hailing from India and participating in track events.

Auckland will serve as the host city from April 21 to 30, with athletes competing in 28 sports across 45 venues.