Competitors at a previous Masters Games. Photo: NZ Masters Games
Thousands of competitors are preparing to test their skills at the Masters Games in Dunedin, in events ranging from squash to jigsaw puzzle racing.
The 35th Games kick off on Saturday with participants aged from 18 to over 90, and more than 60 sports on offer.
When Aucklander Tatjana Ratsdorf had a nasty fall from a horse, she faced a long recovery from a concussion and serious injuries to her hip, shoulder, ribs and legs.
"When my orthopaedic surgeon asked me for a physical goal, I said, 'Please let me know when I can take up springboard diving.' It was just one of these crazy moments that I thought I might as well just go and give it a try."
About 10 months into her recovery, her specialist gave her a green light to start diving - just not from the higher platforms.
Not one to back down, she gave it a go, and said she loved the incredible diving community.
"I had never in my whole life imagined that I would ever go and do a head-first dive off the three-metre board, and here I am about 3000 dives later and I'm still doing it. I'm enjoying every single moment of it."
Nearly four years later, she was preparing to compete in the rookie springboard and platform diving at the Masters Games in Dunedin.
Wānaka pickleball player Phil Burke described his sport as like mini-tennis on a smaller court.
He first got involved when a friend got hooked while stuck in the United States during Covid-19, deciding to build a court on his farm once he got back.
"I used to play a lot of tennis as a kid, and there's a men's tennis group here in Wānaka so there's a few tennis players around," Burke said.
"So we thought we'd give this a go and fell in love with it very quickly, to the point that I don't play tennis anymore because it stuffs up my pickleball game."
Burke was excited to go on a road trip with some other players for the Masters Games. Pickleball was quick to pick up, but there was still plenty of room for improvement and to try different strategies, he said.
"Pickleball was perfect for me because it's a smaller court and there's definitely movement, but you can kind of cheat a bit and position yourself on a court, and the rules sort of allow that. You can kind of be less mobile if you choose to."
Jigsaw racing was quickly booked out.
Photo: Scouten, CC BY-SA 3.0
The annual Masters Games alternates between Whanganui and Dunedin - but the last southern games were cancelled in 2022 due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Masters Games manager Vicki Kestila could not wait.
"We were just gutted in 2022 that we couldn't go ahead, so to actually see the Games Hub coming together now and knowing that, yes, it's going to happen is fabulous.
"We put a years' worth of work into getting this event going. One of the newest events was jigsaw puzzle racing - basically a race to complete a 1000-piece puzzle, and there's limited numbers on that, but it was the first event to be fully booked out."
The Masters Games was one of the city's biggest biennial events, based across about 40 different venues, with more than half of the 4000 competitors travelling from out of town, Kestila said.
"It's an opportunity for people to have a goal… if they haven't been active but they can work towards entering, or just an excuse to just keep going every week… and then get out there and get their medal at the end of it with the Masters Games."
Spectators were welcome and there would be plenty going on at the Games Hub at the University Union until it wrapped up on 11 February, she said.
