Young at heart!

I had the pleasure of photographing the "Might Mirinjani" participants in the 2009 YMCA Senior Sports Carnival at the Mpowerdome on Wednesday 6 May 2009. This group of athletes are residents at the Mirinjani Nursing home in Canberra and they were competing against athletes from other nursing homes throughout Canberra and district.


It was a fun day and I was amazed at the fierceness of the competition that they showed. I thought these guys were supposed to have been elderly and frail! No way. When it comes to skittles, javelin tossing, wheelchair races and hot potatoes these guys are awesome.


Look at the fierce determination on Doris's face as she does her best to knock over the skittles. After she knocked the skittles over I had to duck for cover otherwise I would have been injured! Her companion in this team competition was Jean. Don't let that slight frame fool you she was deadly accurate and came away with a medal from this competition.




Jean went for the over arm throw whereas Doris used an underarm style. Both were very accurate. They were throwing bean bags which are not the most aerodynamic missiles. They had to knock down six tins off a table about 2 metres in front of where they were sitting. Great work guys.




Muriel was given the task of representing the team in the javelin toss. Ok it was a modified version of this sport given we were indoors and there were heaps of people around, some who don't move as quickly as they used to... but hey this was serious stuff.






Dianna shows her determined style with the bean bag toss. The idea was to toss a bean bag into a basket. It was a team sport time event. Each team member had to toss two bean bags and see if they could get it in the basket. The team with the most baskets at the end of the time was the winner. The action was fast and furious.