13 - Wednesday, September 4, Slice Sunshine PAGE 15 1985 - North Shore News ompetition alive for ex- AT 37, INA DELURE proved she can still pull an Oar. The former women’s na- tional rowing team member brought home two gold and one ‘bronze metal from the World Masters last inaugural Games in Toronto month. A gold medal in an eight-woman shell and the other gold in a four-woman shell fell to the North Van- couver rower. lymp She earned the bronze on her own in a single rowing skull. The World Masters were the culmination of Delure’s first year back in the boat after five years ashore. NEWS ‘photo ‘ton Smith shows the technique that Kept her on the’ Canadian National rowing (eam for seven years and won her two goid and -one’. bronze meda) at the World Masters Games in Toronto last month. Back in North Vancouver, Delure is already ard the next World Masters Games in Denmark. YOU'RE SAFE! MASTER BATTERS tasied victory and it was j sweet. The Burnaby team took on St. Alice Hotel for ihe slow pitch league title. As in the picture, right, everything went the Master Bat- ters way. A Master Batter is safe at second base and thinking about going to third in this picture from. :the second game of the best of three series, Master ‘Batters won that game 9-7 and | won 7-4 Thursday at Griffen. Park to. take the A series. Delure competed in the American Nationals, the Canadian Henley and the World veterans collecting six medal this summer before entering the World Masters. As well as being a Cana- dian National team member for seven years, she was on two Olympic teams in 1976 and 1980. She retired from the National team at age 32. While most masters com- petitions are for athletes 40 years old and older, women’s rowing starts at age 27, The main reason is women are newcomers to the sport and there are few rowers over the forty year mark. . And because there are few competitors, 250 at the Masters, aihletes of different countries often join together for races. In both her‘ gold medal winning preformances, Delure combined her talents with rowers from other countries. In the eight-woman boat, Delure combined with other Olympians from the United States, and in the four- woman shell she combined with an Australian, an American and an Argenti- nian. RELAXED AIR Delure enjoyed the cama- taderie and relaxed air of competition at the games. lan i “The Masters‘ will be as popular as fitness is now," predicted Delure. “People that have tasted competition like.it and stay with it,’’ she continued. “You don’t just turn off competition. If you do it Jeaves a great hole.’’ | Delure says she still feels absolutely sick before com- peting, but ‘‘you certainly know your alive.” Despite the butterflies, the masters aren’t anything like the Olympics, says Delure. “The Olympics was a- constant stress situation. You did everything to peak at just the right time,’’ said Delure. ‘‘People are. still hungry for the gold at the masters but it’s more relax- ed. Many make a huge holi- day out of the thing.’’ PLACE TO GO “She emphasizes that the Masters competition, in all sports, means there is a place to go for older athletes. “You don’t have to stop dead, said Delure."’ While rowing is still an elite sport -- a single skull costing $2,000 and up, Delure says it’s more ac- cessable now. She predicts there'll be four times as many women rowers. And Delure will be there -- “*for sure.’” Meanwhile, Delure moves up an-age category next year and says ‘‘I’ll win for sure.”’ NEWS photo| fan ‘Smith :