South East athlete Rob Italia discovered his love for athletics at 47 and has not looked back since.
The Casey Masters Athletics Club captain is now gearing up to compete in 15 events in the upcoming Australian Masters Games taking place from Saturday October 7 to Saturday October 14 in Adelaide. The unsung hero who won’t let age defeat them.
At 47 and new to the sport after coming from a career in AFL Superules, Italia said he found the athletics community welcoming, fun and supportive.
“I was just average and got a bit faster and a bit quicker,” he said.
“I’ve now done about six or seven Australian Masters Games, I’ve done state and national championships, and I’ve been to the World Championships in Spain where we won a gold medal in the 4 x 400m (beating USA) and broke a national record time of 3.37:43.”
Italia is competing in 15 events – the 60 metre, 100 metre, 200 metre, 400 metre, 800 metre, 1500 metre, 3000 metre and 5000 metre runs, the steeplechase, long jump, javelin, cross country, the street mile, the 10,000 metre walk and last but not least, the pentathlon.
He does the Parkrun each Saturday, still cracking 20 minutes and regularly goes under a minute in the 400 metre.
