Winning veteran rowers show 'we're not dead yet'
BBCA crew of veteran rowers with national and international honours have beaten rival crews 30 years younger than them.
The four men from Tees Rowing Club in Stockton compete in the 80-85 age category and won gold medals at the World Rowing Masters Regatta in Banyoles, Spain, last year.
In their latest competition - a 4,500m (14,764ft) time trial at the Tyne Head of the River Race - they finished faster than crews competing in the 50-55 age category.
Crew member Ralph Pickles said the motivation was very simple: "It's about showing we're not dead yet."
He said the crew, which also includes Robert Bainbridge, Chris Kenyon and John Lund, often travelled to the south of England to race against some of the best in their category.
Bainbridge said he had rowed almost every day for the last 50 years.
''I've won over 900 events and I'm obsessed with winning," he said. "I'd never row to just compete, it's always about winning."
The men train together four times a week on the River Tees, with some doing additional fitness work on top.
Kenyon said: "We all put a lot of hard work in and take it seriously, so it's very pleasing when it all pays off."
The men said rowing was a sport for all ages and could be enjoyed as much by children as by those a lot more ''experienced and mature".
Lund returned to rowing after retiring as a parish priest and was part of the crew which won gold at the World Rowing Masters in Spain last year.
He said: "When you're competing together side by side with all these other nations you realise we're all part of this global village."
The medals were good, he said, but his overriding motivation to get up and train on a morning was "to be out on the water alongside my mates".
