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Veteran sprint hurdler Tony Bowman battles through a tough year

After recovering from heart problems the remarkable veteran sprint hurdler has struggled to train and compete in 2020 and lost his wife to Covid-19 but he refuses to be downbeat

Overcoming adversity is a regular theme in athletics. Yet Tony Bowman has endured far more than his fair share of problems in the last year or so.

The 85-year-old has undergone surgery to correct irregularities in his heart and then, earlier this year, his wife died after falling ill with coronavirus.

In an attempt to maintain his own impressive levels of fitness when training facilities were closed due to the pandemic, he bought his own set of hurdles and began practicing on an all-weather hockey pitch, only to find there are barely any competitions he can actually do.

Despite this he talks with optimism about 2021 and is looking forward to attacking world masters records in his age group.

Of course the Leeds-based athlete is not merely a ‘tough nut’. He has considerable talent too.

After being inspired by athletics after watching the 1948 London Olympics as a teenager with his dad, in 1952 he won a silver medal in the sprint hurdles at the English Schools Championships in Bradford and then, after a break of many years, he returned to the sport as a veteran to more or less carry on where he left off.

“I gave up sprinting when I was about 26 and then concentrated on playing hockey and tennis,” he says. “But then someone told me about veteran athletics and I was 42 at the time.”

In recent years this remarkable man has won world and European masters titles in sprints, hurdles and combined events and has broken world records recently in the over-80s age group.

Bowman fizzes with energy when he talks. “I’m very competitive and don’t seem to have lost that as I’ve got older,” he enthuses. “If anything I’ve got more competitive.”

For years he has paid for his own travel to international masters championships, winning multiple gold medals for Britain, using his own savings and pension. “I don’t get any funding or sponsorship whatsoever,” he says. “The only sponsorship that I’ve ever had is with David Lloyd where they gave me free membership for about three years with a tracksuit and top etc, but then the firm changed hands and they dropped all the sponsorship.

“Fortunately I’ve worked all my life and never been a smoker or a drinker so I use my savings and pension. It’s something I absolutely love so I don’t regret it.”

If he does have one regret, it is maybe not focusing more on athletics as he emerged from his teenage years. After starting national service with the RAF he became intimidated by the increased height of hurdles as he got older and temporarily quit the sport. Still, he had great fun at the time as a young hurdler.

“My ambition is to run the 100 metres when I’m 100 and to live until I’m 120,” he says. “I will be 100 in only 15 years’ time and I only feel in my 50s now.

“You ask me what’s kept me going. I think I’m one of these very fortunate people. Not only do I do a lot of sport but I’m keen on dancing – ballroom, salsa, jive, cha-cha-cha, all that jazz – and I’ve won competitions with my dancing partner with Strictly Come Dancing people like Craig Revel Horwood judging. That all helps to keep me young.”

His advice to aging athletes who want to succeed? “Well, a lot of it is in the genes,” he says. “But if you’re enthusiastic for the sport then that counts for a lot. What can I say? Just keep at it.”