Ralph to run for his wife
Ralph Schubert (above) has been overtaken as the oldest competitor at this year’s Great Barrier Reef Masters Games but he isn’t letting it slow him down, particularly with wife Lillian here to cheer him on. The 87-year-old from Sydney will hit the track for the 200m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m when the athletics competition begins at Barlow Park on Saturday. Mr Schubert said he wasn’t out there to prove anything to anyone else other than his biggest fan.
RALPH Schubert has been overtaken as the oldest competitor at this year’s Great Barrier Reef Masters Games but he isn’t letting it slow him down, particularly with wife Lillian here to cheer him on.
The 87-year-old from Sydney will hit the track for the 200m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m when the athletics competition begins at Barlow Park on Saturday.
Mr Schubert said he wasn’t out there to prove anything to anyone else other than his biggest fan, who hoped he could repeat his past heroics.
“Four years ago Lillian didn’t actually come but I came, but she’s come up this year,” he said.
“All I do is do what I’m told and I always have the word. I say, ‘yes dear’.”
Mrs Schubert, who has taken on the task of making sure Ralph knows when and where he’s meant to be, said she enjoyed watching him compete as much as the cyclists who ring their bells in support on training runs in Belrose in Sydney’s northwest.
“He thinks he’s getting a bit last browbeaten by this time but he’s still got his marbles and so have I,” she said.
The mantle of oldest competitor has fallen to Alwynne “Joe” Collins of Mission Beach.
The 89-year-old will compete in the clay target shooting in Atherton alongside his 71year-old brother Edgar, from Malanda, and nephew James, who has travelled from Brisbane to participate.