This week we welcomed to our ensuite room at the hostel the winners of our prize draw at this year’s Ambleside Sports, Tony and Betty Bowman.
As they arrived, we suggested that we would like a snap for the blog and Tony said, if he had known, he would have brought his running kit.
We thought he was joking, but far from it. Tony was in fact the winner of the 200m race at the Sports, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
In the last four years Tony, aged 84, has broken 13 British athletics track and field records and next month he is off to the European Masters Athletics Championships in Jesolo, Italy, to compete in the decathlon.
Betty is very supportive of Tony’s continuing athletic ambitions. She says it keeps him busy and out of her hair. They have known each other since school. She was a keen swimmer and her father, who was a swimming coach, actually taught Tony to swim. It wasn’t till they were playing on an adult mixed hockey team that they started courting.
After a lifetime of athletics and hockey, Tony is still ambitious. He has set his sights on running 100m at 100 [ and living to 120!]. We wish him the best in these endeavours and hope to welcome him and Betty back to the hostel in the future.
