A golden year for super-vet Colin Spivey

We talk to the 91-year-old record-breaker who came to running late but is well and truly making up for lost time as AW readers’ choice British masters male athlete of 2025.

The French 400m runner and his Italian counterpart were left rather disappointed. As they prepared to start the M90 age group contest at the European Masters Championships in Madeira in October, they were under the impression that it would be a straight shootout between the two of them for gold. But they had reckoned without the arrival of Colin Spivey.

The 91-year-old was trying something new. Having become a regular at his local parkrun in Huddersfield since 2012 after being persuaded by his daughter to head along, he went on to discover that he was one of the fastest athletes in his age group. 

Last year he represented Great Britain for the first time at the World Masters Championships in Gothenburg over 5000m – the first track race of his life and his first journey abroad since being a teenager. He came fourth and his competitive appetite was whetted.

It was suggested that he then think about taking on the decathlon. “The mind said yes but my fitness and ability said no,” says Spivey, but he did begin to contemplate growing his athletics vocabulary.

“I thought I could do the shorter distances after I came back from Sweden last year,” he tells AW. “I just thought if I could do 5000m then I could do 3000m easily – it would be a doddle – so I went to Sheffield to do a 3000m indoors earlier this year and ran a world record, which absolutely amazed me. I had no idea. It’s just gone on from there.”

And so it was that Spivey headed to the European Masters with four races on his agenda – the 400m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m. He won them all, breaking British M90 records in the first three. 

“I felt sorry for the Frenchman,” he admits. “In my first race, the 400m, there were just the two of them – him and an Italian chap – and so they thought: ‘We’re the only two so we’ll get to gold and silver between us’. They were nice chaps. I competed with the French guy in the 800m and 1500m, too, but he got a silver each time, which isn’t too bad, is it?”

There is a hearty chuckle as Spivey tells the tale but there is not a trace of boastfulness. In fact, if anything he seems as surprised as anyone by his success, despite the mounting honours. “It’s just one thing after another. I’m a little embarrassed,” he says at the news of being named AW’s British Masters Male Athlete of the Year. 

But his performances are making an impact. He is speaking the day after winning his age category at a 5km road race and adds: “There were so many people wanting photographs taken with me, congratulating me and saying: ‘My dad is 95 and he wouldn’t go out and do anything, but he’s inspired by you, and he’s going to try’ and all this sort of thing. It’s nice to hear.”

It’s over the shorter distances where Spivey feels most content and comfortable: “Because it’s more competitive and I’m running with other similar age groups.” And it was his 800m win, in a time of 4:17.60, in Madeira that stands out from his European medal haul.

“That was really good, especially coming around on to the straight on the last lap,” he says. “The crowd was so noisy, and just pipping the other chap in front who was in a category lower than me… I enjoyed that.”

Spivey insists “he’s been lucky” but the secret of his success has been simply to keep moving. The parkrun has become a weekly fixture but, over and above that, what does the rest of his regime look like?

“I do 30 or 40 press-ups and sit-ups every morning and a few stretching exercises,” he says. “I go for a walk of one or two hours most days and I go to Edgerton tennis club in Huddersfield to do sponge ball tennis for about 90 minutes each week. Once every couple of weeks, I’ll go for a jog on the canal from my house up to Slathwaite, which is about a couple of miles away, and back. That’s about as much as I do running wise, apart from the parkrun.”

He is already thinking about what comes next. Spivey acknowledges that he’s in a privileged position to be able to afford to compete for his country – there is no funding support for Masters athletes – but the World Masters in Daegu, South Korea, in August of next year is a definite target. “I’ve got to carry on now.”

He suspects, too, that there are plenty of other older adults out there with untapped athletic potential. So what would his message be to anyone who might be thinking about following his example into the sport? 

“We’re only here once so make hay while the sun shines, as it were,” says Spivey. “They’ve got to make a start somewhere, rather than just sitting at home, and one of the best places, I think, is the parkruns, because you can just walk and meet other people to get out and enjoy the fresh air.”

As for his own endeavours, he adds: “It’s a new career now. I’ve got to the stage where [it’s a case of] what the hell – do it as long as you can.”