M45 slowster closing in on 1,000 medals, he claims
You’ve heard of speedsters? Meet Ganga Prasad, an Australian slowster. I rarely use such language in describing a fellow sprinter (since I’m not much faster than this gent.) But this guy ticks me off. In a local Aussie newspaper, he boasts about winning eight medals at this month’s Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast. “Prasad won two golds, five silvers, and a bronze medal in the 45-49 age group,” this article reports. “He was aiming to reach a career tally of 1,000 medals, but after the Gold Coast was happy to give his body a rest.” Ganga said: “For three days after, all the muscles couldn’t move. If I did any more, I would have died. I think I did very good this time, and the games themselves with all the events were too good.”
Ganga displays a gaggle of medals from recent meet.
The short article continued:
Now Prasad will turn his attention to the Queensland State Athletics Championships, where he hopes to win up to 13 medals, in February, the Australasian Masters Games in March, and the World Masters Games in Sydney later next year.
“It’s just an interest which started in school,” he said. “I was made to do cross country then, and then I represented Fiji in the South Pacific Games. I used to do middle distance and marathons, but I’m too old now.”
Curious about this multi-event stud, I Googled some of his results and found this:
Masters Men 45-49yrs
100m 1. Callum McInnes 13.87, 2. Ganga Prasad 16.67.
200m 1. Callum McInnes 28.61, 2. Ganga Prasad 36.16.
Long Jump 1 Callum McInnes 4.61m (REC), 2. Ganga Prasad 3.07m.
High Jump 1. Callum McInnes 1.40m (REC), 2. Ganga Prasad 1.05m.
Triple Jump 1. Ganga Prasad 6.20m (REC).
Shot Put 1. Danny Beveridge 9.61m (REC), 2..Callum McInnes 7.88m, 3. Ganga Prasad 6.52m.
Javelin 1. Ganga Prasad 19.72m.
Discus 1. Danny Beveridge 29.79 (REC), 2. Callum McInnes 20.32m, 3. Ganga Prasad 17.83m.
Yessir, he’s quite the superstar.
And even though he hasn’t even reached M50, he’s won nearly 1,000 medals? On what planet? Gimme a break.
I delight in his love of competition, but I deplore his medal-obsession. What does he do with all this hardware? Where does he store it? Imagine what this guy would win if he had a semblance of talent!
17 Responses
Kind of harsh there Ken. He’s just out there having fun, and importantly, not sitting on his tail listening to his arteries harden. So more power to him, and if collecting medals is his thing – I say go for it.
However, it’s unfortunate that if he lived in the US he would be able to compete in our National All-Comers Meet (USATF National Championship) where his performances would clearly be a distraction.
I agree with Ken. At some meets laughable performances might earn you a medal, but please do not brag about it. Quality, not quantity counts.
Don’t get me started on medals! You guys simply cannot believe the yelling, screaming, fighting, backstabbing and mobbing that happened during my first participation in the WMA World Championships in Puerto Rico (German team). I remember that it was mainly the spouses who created the ruckus in the relay selection meetings. The reason? Medals. If they could have broken my legs, they would have done it just for the chance for their hubbies to win a medal in a darn relay race! Same thing happened in San Sebastian. By then, spouses were no longer allowed to the team meetings. They did their mobbing outside of the meeting room. Well, I decided to become American after all. And what? Medal inflation (or is it deflation) starts on the last day of our Nationals with the start of relays. For a few years now, I watch in disbelieve how folks jog around the oval in club and none-club relays (within one and the same age group, no less!) to win a mighty medal. Most of these medals should be cut from toilet paper and not even resemble the medals won in close competition with an honest effort.
Men in the 90 year old age group category have better performances in most of the events in which he received medals. He is still a young man. I applaud Mr. Prasad for showing up, but he doesn’t understand the purpose of our sport.
This is a strange article because if these marks are from his 1st track meet after 20 years, I could understand it. But if he has won several hundred medals it means he’s in shape but no one can compete that much and not improve on his performances. Then he says he was sore for three days afterwards but Earl Fee at 76 can warm up faster than this guy competed and not feel tired. So I think he must be a special athelite who is doing the best he can and probably appreciates the medals much more than we.
While I would not brag about winning medals with preformances such as those listed above, what does it really matter? He seems to be having fun and besides, someone has to fill the back of the pack.
Speaking of medals, what’s that website site that was in a recent Runner’s World article I believe that you can go to in order to donate your medals to children in hospitals?
To each his (or her) own, but to me putting a smile on a child’s face is a much better use of a medal than putting it in a shoebox in my closet as I’ve done.
Can anyone provide the website? Thanks…
MJ, it’s http://www.medals4mettle.org. I’ve already sent some in and got a “warm and fuzzy” out of it.
Another fun use for medals…save a few special ones to hang on your Xmas tree.
Interesting…slowster, huh…on another note, does anyone have Sal Allah’s e-mail address?…I hate to resort to the blog for this type of info but no one else had it…thx.
Thanks, Liz…
FR: David E. Ortman (M55) Seattle, WA
See my False Start column on “Medals, Patches and Curtain Rods” posted at:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Shores/7081/fsi.html
Does anyone really think 1000 medals is a big deal ??? Think about it….10 meets in one outdoor season….win 4 medals a meet…bives one 40 in one year. If you keep competing from your high school days through your forties…it’s easily achieved. I’ll bet there’s plenty of master athletes working on 2000 plus !
ever since i won my first official medal back in sixth grade in 1966 ,(the silver dollar i won in second grade all wags pee wee league footrace didn’t have a ribbon attached) i enjoyed the “feel ” of hardware in my hand. my first high school championship medal…my first aau…college…submasters and masters, each and everyone means something to me.i’m a multievent guy, so i’m able to earn many. sometimes my marks are great and sometimes not. that’s what the results are for. i’ve got a buddy who i’ll bet has at least as many medals as that guy. thing is, his marks are not great. he’s not that fast, and can’t jump that high, but his heart is that of a champion. he’s like the ever ready rabbit..he goes and goes and goes.some guys believe that because his times are slow, he doesn’t deserve the same medal that they earned. i say if theres a starting line and whoever shows up and finishes in the top places, be it first out of two or third out of fifty two, that person has justly won their prize. in a way i admire my friend, because he never had the raw talent or ability to compete on a high level successfully, until he became older,and even now can get his head handed to him by a much faster competitor, but he’s always thrilled when he places, and always proud to wear his patch and show his colors.track is supposed to be fun, and if “lesser gifted ” athletes are excited about the medals they have “won “…who are we to try to take the wind out of their sails. we all know that there’s always someone stronger, faster, smarter,younger looking than us, so i think we should all try to “cheer each other on ” in this race called life and the one with the most medals gets a hernia…albert
Hey Al…hope to see you in Maryland next March.
I hear what you are saying about the enjoyment of winning medals. But for many of us that competeted in high school and/or college there was a price that needed to be paid for that medal-hard work and perseverance. What gets to me is the pretentious self promotion of people like Mr. Prasad and a couple of months back, Dr. Woods-Howze. Their ostentatious photos with all of their medals is pure vainglory.
I know the individual you refer to in your post and admire him and many others like him for their perseverance and love of the sport. They compete and try to improve upon their past performances, and if they win some medals
along the way, that is great.
But if some of these same people then show up in the sports section of the local paper proclaiming to be the masters version of Jesse Owens, because of their huge medal haul (which was usually won by being the only participant in an age group, or being 3rd in a 3 person race, then I’ve lost any respect I might have had for them.
Okay, I gotta say, I’m a little bit taken aback that Ken has used his masters forum to mock some guy who has made his goal the accumulation of medals.
Is it sort of silly? Seems like it to me. But that’s why I don’t do it. Do I care that this guy does? … Why would I? Good grief, we’ve all earned the right to our own eccentricities by middle-age. I can think of far worse things than medal-lust.
Seriously, why the need to make this guy feel like dirt? Why take decades of his hobby and trash it in a public forum?
This guy is stealing nothing from me nor anybody else. Live and let live.
We could stop his outrageous behavior by eliminating medals, placements, newspaper recognition, and write-ups in blogs. That would really help the sport.
If medals are important to you, go after them. Period.
It’s all about the medal these days, isn’t it? 🙂
True enough that there is a distinct difference between people who participate and those who train to compete, but the medal issue is obviously arguable depending upon one’s perspective. The only way to prevent athletes from being awarded medals in national track and field events is to raise the standards for finishing performances to perhaps 80% age grade, which is recognized as national class. This will still allow it to be an all-comers event, with the understanding that there is a high standard for awards. This also means that for those events in which there is a predictably low turnout, there might not be a “real” national champion.
There have been many comments in the past about the low quality of win, place, and show performances at nationals; would such a medal-award change make a difference? Would it effect the turnout for masters events? And how would team scores be tallied–only national-class performances should be allowed points for the standings?
On a different note: For those of us who compete in road races, the price of competing has steadily increased due to the pressure placed on organizers to award finisher medals or other tangible gifts just for making it from start to finish. I’d like to see this practice change in order to allow athletes the opportunity to save money by paying less and NOT receiving a finisher medal or t-shirt. Many people are motivated to participate in distance events by the draw for a really unique prize just to finish, but for those who don’t need the incentive and can simply be satisfied with the time on the clock, there ought to be an option.
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