Hedland team savour senior Olympics

Port Hedland seniors proved you are only as old as you feel as they headed to Broome for the North West Senior Olympics last weekend.

In a quest to defend their title from 2015, six of Hedland’s senior Olympians from the Home and Community Care House took on their regional rivals in the Kimberley’s Bran Nue Dae respite centre.

Team captain Beryl Adamson said the team were very excited to return to Broome and enjoy the competition and the coastal town.

“We’ve got to do something with ourselves — we can’t sit around and do nothing,” she said.

“We’ve been training for about four months, twice a week, and most of us here are pretty keen on the bowls event.”

The seniors competed in an array of games including indoor bowls, quoits, bean bag toss, tennis ball toss and sticky ball.

The small competition, facilitated through the Silver Chain group, is only battled out between the two northern towns.

However there are hopes to include more towns such asKarratha, Roebourne and Newman.

Despite the dwindling numbers, however, Ms Adamson said the event was still one of the highlights of the year.

“There used to be more of us, but they’ve gone and we’re just getting along and filling our days,” she said.

The team includes Ms Anderson as captain, June Derschow as vice-captain, Maggi Dhu, Josie McPhee, Geraldine Holland and Irene Coffin.

Since the inception of the games in the 1990s, Hedland’s senior Olympians have claimed victory 17 times in the 26-year history of the competition between the two towns.