88-year-old is a hearty favourite
Multiple champion was given weeks to live before surgery
I don’t over-train either. My knee is starting to ‘click clack’ a little bit. And I don’t want to use up all my kilometres. Athlete Berry Krebs
Major heart surgery hasn’t stopped a Levin octogenarian from winning enough sporting medals to sink him to the bottom of the pool. Barry Krebs, 88, has tried to make every post a winner since a quadruple heart bypass operation 17 years ago. Before the operation, he was given just weeks to live.
“I can’t really complain, can I?” he said.
The fit and lively former horse trainer has compiled an impressive form line at major race meetings lately. In his last 20 events, he has won 16 gold medals, three silvers and one bronze.
Most of his medals were in the field, with gold in shot put, javelin, hammer throw and discus, while he had form in the pool too, in breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle.
It was a somewhat unlucky bronze in the freestyle. He was crippled by cramp just short of the finish line when vying for yet another gold.
“This year I’ve had quite a good year,” he said.
As a young man growing up in Wellington, Krebs used to play any sport that was going — swimming, bowls, tennis, rugby and cricket — and has been enjoying his renewed enthusiasm for competition.
He was giving just as much attention to his diet and training regime as he did to that of his horses when he was training them for competition.
He drinks plenty of water and eats food high in nutrition. “I don’t overtrain either. My knee is starting to ‘click clack’ a little bit. And I don’t want to use up all my kilometres,” he said.
Despite keeping himself in good shape and eating well since the operation, he only took up competing in recent years after joining the Manawatu¯-Whanganui Masters Athletic Club at the Massey Campus in Palmerston North.
The strong run of form had come at meetings held since the Covid-19 lockdown, the latest being the New Zealand Masters Games at
Whanganui a month ago. Before that were the North Island Masters at Masterton in January, and the New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Wellington late last year.
He stopped training racehorses after his heart operation, but still fondly remembers the exploits of
horses like Rough Legend, who won 11 races and almost $200,000 in prizemoney more than 20 years ago, including a third in the Group One Thorndon Mile at Trentham in 1998.
Krebs said he trained and prepared himself for competition much like he did his horses. “It’s all common sense.”