Brit Athletics Champion, 81, is a monk who lasted 70 years to claim first gold
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A Marathon -Monk has become a British athletics champion after seventy years, even though he “almost collapsed” during his first run.
Father John Gribben is a clever 81 years old and can now claim that he is top of his field after winning a gold medal on the British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships.
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Known as the “Sprintende Monnik” among parishioners, he won the 400 meter dashboard in two minutes, three seconds and 190 milliseconds.
Gribben also secured bronze medals in the events of 60 meters and 200 meters in London.
But it took him 70 long years to finally reach running stars, with Gribben’s first attempt at sport in the 1950s.
That didn’t really go to plan, where Octogenarian admitted that he could hardly get up immediately after half a mile effort.
He told Time: “I almost collapsed after that first run. I said,” I’m not a runner, “but I never stopped.”
Gribben began to control the art of running when he moved to Mirfield, West YorkshireIn 1979 – where he remains to this day.
And like any good athlete, Gribben devotes himself to a debilitating training schedule from the middle of the week.
He explained: “Three nights at least a run of 5 km, most days I do a sprint of 60 meters, and then the other things are an hour in the local gym a few days a week.”
The resident of Belfast, who went to a Theological College in Dublin, mainly gets his raceticks in Greenhead Park’s Parkrun in Huddersfield.
He has since completed more than 250 events, with an impressive 5 km personal record of 26 minutes.
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Gribben, who follows two buses to reach the track, started going when he was almost 70 years old.
He now runs 5 km in about 40 minutes, and that Saturday morning slogs finally paid dividends when he grabbed gold at the Masters.
Gribben also revealed the spiritual kick that he gets from running, and added: “There is something in the spring, you touch a point where it is ecstasy, you are almost outside of yourself, when you touch that speed that you are wearing the latter, what you need to reach the line.
“Sometimes I just say to my savior:” Well, I’ll run if you run with me. “
“I don’t know I get an answer, but … I am starting to put on my trainers and it feels good to do.”
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