New Zealand Masters Games a success for Whanganui with inspiring athletes

New Zealand Masters Games manager Heather Cox says the games were a success in Whanganui. Photo / Eva de Jong

The Whanganui 2025 Downer New Zealand Masters Games have ended with a turnout of more than 4600 people, lots of sunshine and inspiring older athletes making for a standout event.

There were 4653 participants in this year’s games, 400-plus more than the 2023 turnout in Whanganui. The games alternate between Whanganui and Dunedin.

Additional gate sales of more than 200 throughout the competition showed there was a strong interest in the games village entertainment.

Games manager Heather Cox said there were three big nights in the games village which generated significant income.

“Obviously, we’re a charity and we have to fundraise to make sure we can cover the costs of the event, so that was a good result,” she said.

The weather played ball throughout 10 days with lots of sunshine and clear skies helping the outdoor sports run smoothly. Sunday’s cricket tournament took place in hot temperatures with seven 11-a-side teams facing off at Victoria Park.

There were plenty of uplifting performances from older athletes throughout the games.

Athlete Jim Blair, who turns 94 in May, put on an impressive performance in the athletics. Avila Allsop, 89, lifted a personal best of 70kg to take out a gold medal in the 80+ category for powerlifting.

Cox said the biggest challenge organisers faced was finding out before the games began that they could no longer use their 30-year-old registration system.

“We had to build something quickly, and we know it was a challenge for people to use but at the end of the day we had no choice,” she said.

“I really want to thank everybody for their patience whilst we dealt with the registration system.

“It was great to see that we still got amazing results with the turnout for the event.”

She said there was now time to fix the registration system ahead of the next Masters Games in Whanganui in 2027.

The most popular sports with the highest registrations were football, jigsaw-racing and the increasingly popular sport of pickleball.

“Pickleball only came into the programme in 2023 but all the spaces booked out so quickly this year,” Cox said.

During the games, Cox spoke to a couple who had been married for 30 years and had met at the Masters Games village in Whanganui.

“When you hear stories like that, it resonates with the values of the games.

“Our mission is to provide a multisport festival that unites the community and people ... so seeing as they’ve been married for 30 years we’ve done something right.”

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.