The accolades keep coming for veteran walker Arthur Thomson from Letchworth Garden City. The Herts Phoenix athlete has been honoured by the European Athletic Association. He has been voted the Best European Veteran of 2006 at an EVAA committee meeting in
The accolades keep coming for veteran walker Arthur Thomson from Letchworth Garden City.
The Herts Phoenix athlete has been honoured by the European Athletic Association.
He has been voted the Best European Veteran of 2006 at an EVAA committee meeting in Frankfurt.
EVAA president Dieter Massin sent his congratulations to Arthur by email, adding that the committee's decision was a unanimous one.
The two performances that won Arthur the honour were his wins in the 3k and 5k walks at the British Masters championships at Birmingham in July.
His times of 15:15.24 and 26:01.52 eclipsed the previous world records in the over-70 age group by 35 seconds and 54 seconds respectively.
Arthur was a member of the Metropolitan Walking Club in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and had several tussles in races with Don Thompson, the 1960 Olympic champion. His decision to give veteran athletics a try was a recent one and involved a lot of hard work over a short period to get back to fitness.
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