Deirdre Larkin, 83, and going strong

Award of HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIP of Randburg Harriers: DEIRDRE LARKIN

Deirdre Larkin has been a member of Randburg Harriers for just a few years, joining up in 2010 at the age of 78 years. This is not surprising, because this amazing athlete only began her running career in 2009!

Winner - Deidre 80+

Deirdre's road-running accomplishments in a short career spanning just four years have been nothing short of remarkable. South Africa's most famous "galloping granny" was Mavis Hutchinson, but Deirdre is following in her footsteps – literally! These achievements have been making news in many places, and a picture of Deirdre in her Randburg Harriers running gear adorned the December 2012 cover of Modern Athlete. Deirdre's story is well documented, from the Modern Athlete article to a recent interview with Brad Brown on RunTalkSA, all the way to an obscure but beautifully-written article by Leo Benning in the Hermanus-based Whalers Athletic Club newsletter of August 2012. Leo was overtaken and beaten to the finish line by Deirdre in the Two Oceans Half Marathon in 2012, which led him to track down and interview Deirdre for his club's newsletter.
But Deirdre's running achievements have reached stellar levels in 2013. Selected to represent Central Gauteng Athletics in the South African 10 km Championships in Durban in May 2013, Deirdre completed the course in a time of 54:17, breaking the South African 10 km record for women over 70 years, and smashing the world 10 km record for women over 80 years! Deirdre took over 2½ minutes off the existing record held by Melitta Czerwenka of Germany, who ran 56:53 in 2011.
Deirdre is – as far as we are aware – Randburg Harriers' first and only world record holder!
Since joining Randburg Harriers, this quietly-spoken, unassuming lady has regularly responded to calls for assistance at our own events, and she has marshalled at several of our road races.
Deirdre Larkin embodies everything that is good about our sport, and about life itself, and Randburg Harriers is immensely proud to call her one of our own.
For representing our Club and our sport in a gracious yet spirited way, and for raising the profile of Randburg Harriers to new heights, we are privileged and proud to award DEIRDRE LARKIN Honorary Life Membership of Randburg Harriers.
(article and photo - courtesy of Randburg Harriers Athletics Club, Johannesburg, South Africa)

This remarkable lady and athlete is an accomplished concert pianist.  Her future plans include running in her first 10 000m race on the track this coming season.

Deirdre's remarkable list of results can be tracked on http://www.raceresults.co.za/output_personal_search.php


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LIZ RUICKBIE, MASTERS QUEEN OF LONG DISTANCE RUNNING IN SOUTH AFRICA

Image
SOUTH AFRICAN MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS  25-26 APRIL 2014 A special congratulations to Liz Ruickbie (67) who participated in the Ladies 65-69  -  5000m at the CGMA championships on 12 April and at the S.A. Championships, as well as in the 10000m.  She broke the 21 year old national record in the 5000m twice in 2 weeks – first, in a magnificent time of 22.43,88 and then again at the SA Masters Championships on the Friday in a time of 22:43,0 followed by another magnificent run the following morning in the 10000m in a new South African record time of 44:50.18 smashing the 10 year old record with a massive 8 secs. Liz, who won the W.60 Marathon event at the World Masters Championships in Lahti, Finland in 2009 in a time of 3:32 and has a personal best time of 3:28 at age 62 and a pb of 1:38 in the half marathon, has entered to run the Berlin Marathon in September.   We wish this talented athlete, who only started her competitive running career at a late age, everything of
Read more

MORE THAN 400 MASTERS ATHLETES CONVERGE ON PORT ELIZABETH THIS WEEKEND

Image
STAR MASTERS ATHLETES OF YESTERYEAR, TODAY AND TOMORROW WILL SHOWCASE THEIR TALENTS IN PORT ELIZABETH THIS WEEKEND AT THE 39TH SOUTH AFRICAN MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS Several of these athletes were top senior athletes in their day, some of whom are still competing at senior level, and many others who have successfully moved into the masters ranks, breaking S.A. age group records and winning several medals at World Masters Championships as they advance through the age groups. The sprints and 400m for ladies will be spearheaded by Adri Schoeman (44), former Olympian,  and winner of 2 sprint titles at the last World Championships in Brazil (2013).  Yolande van Aswegen, Leone Marais and Jennifer Booysen in the 30-44 age groups will be a force to be reckoned with as some of them have their sights set on the World Championships in Lyon in August.  Winnie de Winnaar (45-49) silver medallist at the last
Read more

MASTERS ATHLETICS ON HOLD .....

Masters Athletics in South Africa (1975 - 2020)   -  (Part 1) As we all know, sports events around the world have either been cancelled or postponed. While we are in lockdown. let's have a look at some of the S.A. athletes, past and present who have contributed in some or other way to our sport. This year World Masters Athletics (WMA) (previously known as World Veteran Athletics – WVA) would have celebrated 45 years since the first world championships was held in 1975 in Toronto, and it would have been the 24 th world championships (taking place every 2 nd year). Sadly, it was not to be.  https://wmatoronto2020.com/history/ However, Leo Benning, one of our founder members of S.A. Veteran Athletics, a SAMA statistician for many years, and an active athlete himself, has written a book  - For the love of it – and it will be available on Amazon as soon as possible. Starting in 1975, when some of our own athletes attended the first world champs in Toronto, w
Read more