‘My ambition is to run the 100m at 100’
The 86-year-old sprinter and hurdler Tony Bowman holds multiple agegroup world and national records, including the V85 200m mark set earlier this year. Despite experiencing heart problems and losing his wife to Covid, he’s still full of passion for running and ambitions for the future.
I’ve always run. When I was a kid, I was a bit of a speed merchant. In 1948, my dad took me to the Olympics at Wembley and we saw the 400m final. The Jamaican runner Arthur Wint won it – and that really inspired me. I can remember it so vividly; I even wrote an essay about it when I got back to school.
I was never good enough for the Olympics myself, but I did represent Middlesex as a junior. After about 27, though, I gave up athletics. I played hockey and tennis, and when I was about 42, I took up running again. But it wasn’t until I was about 65 that I started hurdling again – and I’ve been hurdling ever since.
People often ask me about falling, but I haven’t fallen over since I was a kid. I crashed a few times when I was young, and I swear I’ve still got some of those black cinders from the old track at White City in my knee. There were no starting blocks in those days, you just had to take a trowel with you to the track to dig a hole.
I’ve just always loved running. The only thing that is a bit difficult now is the motivation. If you’re a sprinter, you’ve got to keep up your speed; you’ve really got to blast yourself. You can’t go easy over the hurdles, either. You’ve got to more or less treat it as if you’re in a race. I do a lot of talking to myself to try and motivate myself to get that explosive effort right from the very start. In the pandemic, I couldn’t get to a track, so I bought myself a set of five hurdles and made three more. At my age, you run the sprint hurdles over eight, so I took them to the local hockey pitch. A lot of dog walkers gave me funny looks.
I love keeping fit and I love the challenge. My training hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years. I used to run more 200m repeats in my training, but I don’t do that so much now I’m 86 – it’s a bit exhausting. I’ll still do a couple, but when I was younger, I used to do six or so. I still train on alternate days, and I’ve got a nice garden with a slope, so I do strides up that, too. You’ve got to get the old heart beating, you know?
Once or twice a week, I’ll do proper press-ups, nose to the floor. I’ll work up to 60 in sets of 10 with a break in between. I’ll also do a core stability session.
I really missed races over the lockdown periods. When I was 71, I won the sprint on the racecourse in Musselburgh, which has been held every year since the 1870s, including during two World Wars. It’s a
handicap race for all ages, and I was the oldest person ever to win it – by 30 years. The same weekend, I won the 90m Open and the 90m Vets. When I was 80, I broke the world record for the 60m indoor hurdles and I still hold that: 10.86 secs. I also hold the British decathlon record for V70, V75 and V80.
Back in March 2020, the three of us at home – my wife, my son and I – all got ill. My son and I were laid up in bed for a few days. We weren’t tested, so we didn’t know for sure we had the virus. But my wife caught it. Sadly, she wasn’t well already; her immune system was very low and so it took her. Because she was in an intensive care ward, I never got to see her.
But you know, I consider myself one of the lucky ones; I lost my wife, I’ve had a couple of heart attacks and various other things, such as operations and broken limbs, and so on. But I’m still trying to get over the hurdles, no matter what comes my way. I just love hurdling; my ambition is to run the 100m at 100 – only another 14 years to go – and then to live to 120.’
Joylyn Saunders-Mullins turns 70 next year. A talented all-round athlete, she holds several age-group world records, but her preferred distance is the 400m.
At 13, I ran a brilliant time in the 100m. My school PE teacher put me forward for Stevenage and North Herts Athletics Club and I’m still there now. In my twenties, I won the InterCounties and then I came third in the Nationals. I was competitive, but then in 1993 I got injured and I was out for five years. When I came back, someone asked if I wanted to join the Vets League. I said, “What is that?” I’ve been competing ever since and winning medals. My highlight was Puerto Rico in 2003 – I won the World Masters 400m in a world-record time.
When you get to a certain age, you have to be so careful with your body – it starts to change and you have to listen to it. There’s no way I could do the training sessions I did when I was younger. I used to do 12 x 100m or more; now, I can only do four or six. I never used to do stretches or drills; now, I do everything from yoga and Pilates to spring drills.
My normal week includes three hard sessions and my rest day involves Pilates, yoga or a gentle jog. I’ve always been motivated. I found lockdown really hard, but I said to myself, “Come on, you’ve got to be doing this. Do you want to be a 70-year-old sitting on the sofa watching television and deflating? You’ve got a good life, so just carry on!”
The Masters community is fantastic. We call ourselves the athletics family, and it’s always absolutely wonderful to see people older than me still running and competing. That also inspires me to just keep going and not stop. When I turn 70, I need to be breaking some records!’