The World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships will be held for the first time in the United States next week and Gainesville will be the host city of the event.
Hosted by Alachua County, the biennially event will be free and held from March 23-30 at the Alachua County Sports and Event Center in Celebration Pointe.
The opening ceremony for competition will be held Saturday featuring 3,700 athletes representing 99 countries, making this year’s event the most represented in the championship’s history. Founded by the World Masters Athletics, the first championship was held in 2004 at Sindelfingen, Germany.
Athletes must be 35 years or older to participate, and 23 athletes will be representing the local community. Two of the event’s oldest participants include a 104-year-old Thailand man and a 96-year-old New York woman.
The opening of the events center in Celebration Pointe was a major factor in drawing the event to Gainesville and Alachua County, said Radd Sports Senior Vice President Stephen Rodriguez when he was interviewed on Alachua County Talks, the county’s talk show hosted by Communications Director Mark Sexton.
The 144,000-square-foot facility can host everything from pickleball to full track events. The project cost $35.32 million.
The site was chosen to host the event after some members of the WMA council visited the area to see the events center, Rodriguez said.
“We identified this opportunity that existed that World Masters Athletics was reopening a bid for their indoor championship in 2025,” Rodriguez said.
Some of the competitions will be held outside, including two 10K road races, Rodriquez said. The course is a 5K loop that runners will complete twice from Celebration Pointe Avenue to where runners will finish on Bass Pro Shops Boulevard.
