A Winning Spirit Pervades Senior Games

There may not have been any flashy opening ceremonies, but the athletes were high on spirit and eager for action as the Gold Coast Senior Games kicked off a two-week run Saturday.

Sponsored by Blue Cross of California, the 12th annual event began with lawn bowling in Oxnard, swimming in Ojai and a softball tournament that continues today in Ventura and Oxnard.

The Wilson Senior Center hosted the lawn bowling competition, which officially opened the games.

Dressed crisply in all-white garb--the competitors took to the center’s green at 9 a.m. For the uninitiated, lawn bowling may look like a low-key sport. Not so--at least for these senior athletes. Though fun and friendship were recurring themes at the event, the nine three-member teams were hot competitors.

“It’s a game of concentration--and frustration,” said 81-year-old Angel Ochoa of Oxnard.

Rolling their three-pound hard plastic balls at distances of up to 80 feet, competitors attempt to come as close as possible to the jack, a smaller white ball. Strategy, finesse and a bit of luck are needed to score points.

“This game looks so easy until you start playing it,” said Duane Aasted, 63, of Santa Barbara. “Plus it’s a chance to get out and breathe and enjoy the game and the people. That’s why we’re all out here today. It’s addictive.”

Edith Downsing--who first took up lawn bowling in her native England--said players take part in the Senior Games for the camaraderie.

“It’s a wonderful group of people. Competitive people,” Downsing said. The spry Camarillo resident--who was often spotted thrusting her fist into the air after she or a teammate rolled a good one--did not want her age revealed.

“All the boys think I’m a lot younger, so let’s keep it that way,” she said.

The young-at-heart also prevailed at the Ojai Valley Racquet Club pool, where about 30 swimmers--ages 50 to 81--competed in freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke heats.

Cutting through the water at something less than Olympic speed, the swimmers nonetheless came to do their best. But winning wasn’t necessarily the goal for everyone.

“It’s not where you finish that’s important,” said Jack Doran, 66, who traveled from Palm Desert to compete. “It’s the fact that you can finish.”

Autumn Cho, 66, of Ojai, echoed that sentiment.

“As long as you show up and do it and don’t quit, then you are a winner,” said Cho, who took home a silver medal in the women’s 25-meter freestyle event for ages 65 to 69.

Fresh from the water and breathing heavily after finishing in front of the field in the 100-meter men’s freestyle, 71-year-old Thomas Lindholm said he swims for the health of it.

“I’ve been going to a lot of funerals lately, so that’s an incentive to stay active,” said the smiling Ventura attorney.

And proving to be an inspiration to all at the event was the athletic-looking, 81-year-old Clark Webster of Ventura.

“I was a scuba diver for 32 years, but I never really learned how to swim and I always wanted to,” Webster said. So he enrolled in a Ventura College swimming class a couple of years ago and has been competing ever since. “I’ve been blessed with good health.”

Webster took home two gold medals and one silver from Saturday’s games.

In all, more than 500 athletes from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties will take part in the Gold Coast Senior Games. Similar competitions are also held nationwide. Sixteen events are held through Oct. 18, including shuffleboard, table tennis, pool, bowling, basketball free-throw, tennis, bridge and 5K runs and walks.