Kelowna Courier: Clean living will take you places

Surrey’s Mohan Bains won the men’s 65-69 weight throw Friday at the B.C. 55+ Games in Kelowna with a distance of 12.32 metres. The Games conclude today.

Steve MacNaull/The Okanagan Weekend

“I’m addicted to this, so I take it seriously,” said Bains, 69, who won the men’s age 65-69 weight throw competition Friday at the B.C. 55+ Games at Kelowna’s Apple Bowl. “I don’t drink, smoke, do drugs and no womanizing, even in my younger years.” Bains is married with two grown children.

Of his three throws Friday, Bains’s farthest was 12.32 metres, which easily put him in first, ahead of men who had throws of eight and 10 metres. “It’s not my best, but it was my best today and it was good enough to win,” said Bains. “My best was 13.57 metres at a local tournament in Langley.” Bains, who is from Surrey, trains at Ultra Club. His most prestigious placing was second with a throw of 13.31 metres at the North and Central America and Caribbean Region of World Masters Athletics Championships in Toronto in July. “

During the summer I throw and train all the time and mix it up with morning, mid-day and evening sessions, so I’m ready for any competition conditions,” he said. “And I lift light weights and do sprints year-round to keep in shape.” While weight throw is somewhat about strength, it’s also about technique, something Bains has perfected.

“The 20-pound ball is attached with a short chain to the metal handle,” he said. “I swing it three times and do a three-step turn and let it go at 45 degrees for maximum distance. If you throw it too high or too low it doesn’t go very far.”

Bains started throw sports in 1967 after he moved from India to Canada at 17. His best event tended to be shot put, but he also did well in hammer throw and discus. His weight is 178 pounds, which hasn’t varied much in decades. However, he said he may have shrunk from his peak of five-foot-11 to five-10. – – SOURCE