“You’re never too old for gold”

By Aiden Box 

ONE of the region’s most decorated and dynamic duos won themselves yet another gold medal recently, this time at the Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast. 

Locals Merran Sice of Wonthaggi and Faye Surace of Korumburra, and their team, made up of fellow Gippslanders, took out the over 60s division netball title after a tough, quick-fire tournament. 

It certainly wasn’t the pair’s first rodeo though, they’re both quite used to having a golden medallion hanging around their necks, as they mentioned in an interview with the Sentinel-Times recently. 

“We started in 1995 playing basketball with another group of girls, and we were winning gold right up until 2015, we went to Alice Springs, New Zealand, Adelaide, Cairns and other places in Queensland and we’d usually come away with gold in each of them,” said Merran. 

“We grew up in the towns around here and we’d been playing against each other for many years, we were always town rivals in the domestic competitions and then we got to age 35 and we decided to get together and play masters,

“From 1995 to 2015 we played every year in basketball, we didn’t miss a year, but in 2015 our team disbanded so we joined these girls from the Latrobe Valley, and again in 2016 and we won gold in netball, then we won a couple of silvers and then COVID came along.”

The experience of the duo is clear to see, their journey has not only been a long one, but a massively successful one too. 

What is even more impressive about the pair’s story is their comeback this year, after having not played the game for three years, they got back together with their squad and took home another gold.

But how does this competition work? Well, Merran explained the ins and outs of the Pan Pacific Masters Games and their gruelling schedule. 

“We had to play in the over 60s because you can’t play up an age group, but you can play down an age group and we had two players that weren’t 65 as yet, so we had to play down in the (over) 60s, our oldest team member was 73,” she said. 

“We played nine games in six days which was pretty gruesome, we lost our first game and then we won every game after that, they’re fully timed games of 40 minutes so you could imagine how tired we were,

“The first few days we had two games, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, then for finals we played semi finals in the morning and medal finals in the afternoon, needless to say there was a lot of sore bodies by the time the second game came around.” 

The event has no qualifying standards or times to enter and welcomes participants of all levels from Australia and around the world.

“The Pan Pacific Masters games is one year, and the Australian Masters Games is the next year, they play all sports, everything you can think of, it’s just a way that people can keep active in doing the things they love,

“This is just what we do in Australia, we play the Australian Games, the Pan Pacific Games and the Worlds when they’re here, but you can go overseas anywhere, they’ve got them everywhere, 

“This year they even had a men’s team that was 80-89s, they even had walking netball, they cater for all ages and abilities, you’re never refused,

“There’s usually about eight or nine teams in each section, we had that many in ours and that was over 60s, there’s A and B sections too, I think they had 15,000 competitors, 

“You just get on the website, and you enter, if you haven’t got a team, you can put your name down and teams will pick you up, sometimes there’s a waiting list on getting your team in if you leave your entry too late, that’s how popular it is.”

Two thirds of Faye and Merran’s team were older than 65 but that didn’t stop them as they left age and their 10-goal opening game loss in the rear view mirror, and went on an eight game winning streak to win the title. 

“We clicked and we really hit our strides in the finals and played really well, we won both our finals very easily, we’re pretty proud of ourselves nine games in six days is a lot,” said Merran. 

The golden girls each gave their highlights on their 2022 Pan Pacific Games trip. 

“Getting through the nine games in six days and winning gold at the end of it,” Faye said. 

“Winning gold at the end was great because there was a team that hadn’t been beaten and they’d beaten us, but they actually dropped out in the finals, so we thought we had a bit of a chance, and it was lovely to meet up with all the girls again and get all back together because we only all meet up when we play,” said Merran. 

The two local stars showed that sport is truly inclusive of anyone and everyone and Merran stressed this while encouraging more people to take up their sport in the master’s games.

“Next year the Australian Games is in Adelaide and yes, we’ll go again, you’re never too old for gold!”