World of Sport

Veteran athletes shine with gutsy performances

Pensioners' sporting efforts generally tend to revolve around genteel sports such as golf and bowls.

But a group of gutsy senior citizens in Germany have been turning those preconceptions on their heads at an indoor athletics championships.

86-year-old Hans Eberle is probably the star of the show. The sprinter and jumper is the star of his 85-years-and-over age group with a 17.05 second 100m run under his belt, and his famous 3.53m long jump at a meeting last summer would have been good enough for the gold medal even in the under-80s.

Here are some pictures of the athletes in action in Baden-Württemberg.

86-year-old Hans Eberle shows off the awesome long jump technique that would have won him under-80 gold last s …80-year-old Herman Kemmler outpaced Eberle in the 1500m; Kemmler's PB is 7:31.2670-year-old decathlete Joseph Halder soars over the pole vault bar, an event in which he's recorded 2.91m
Christina Lipps, a 64-year-old heptathlete

76-year-old shot putter Berhard Bolz, who was born the year of the 1936 Berlin OlympicsStanislav Ivanovic hasn't let his 81 years stand in the way of him recording a hefty 8.12m in the shot put71-year-old sprinter Fritz Reichle lunges for the tape as he clocks up an impressive 13.33m in the 100m76-year-old shot and discus thrower Gustav Jenne, whose 30m-plus discus throws often win him gold

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