M60 Briton ‘knackered’ after a few days at worlds
When I competed at the 1999 world masters meet in northeast England, I was interviewed by an Athletics Weekly columnist. When the piece was published, I was shocked to see myself quoted in strange ways. The weirdest thing I “uttered” was: “What really gets up my nose….” So I have an appreciation for bizarre UK idioms. A new one appears in this profile of M60 Riccione entrant Earl Taylor, who is quoted as saying: “I must admit I was knackered after the two days, but it wasn’t bad for an old codger who hadn’t seen action for more than four decades.” Doncha love it?
Here’s the story from the Belfast paper:
Veteran athlete Earl’s long jump
[Published: Saturday 13, October 2007 – 09:41]
By Victor Gordon
Earl Taylor’s shock of white hair and his birth certificate indicate that he’s 60 – but his athletic prowess would exhaust a man half his age.
Earl has run, jumped and thrown his way into the world’s top 10 of veteran athletes, sweating through 10 events in the decathlon at the recent World Masters Championships in Italy.
The Co Armagh man runs a legal services business in the commercial world, and he’s the best – bar a few – in track and field events.
Just look at the punishing schedule he endured over the two days of competition in the 60-65 age group in Rimini:
Day One: 100m (first place); long jump (eighth); shot putt (11th); 400m (second); discus (fifth).
Day Two: 100m hurdles (fourth and new NI record); high jump (12th); pole vault (unplaced); javelin (third); 1500m (fifth).
“It was a wonderful experience, but I’ll have to work at that pole vault!” said Earl, who hadn’t donned a pair of track shoes since he competed at Portadown Technical College about 45 years ago (400 yards champ).
But he decided on a whim three years ago to get back on the track.
Since then, he has won a clutch of medals (gold, silver and bronze) at Northern Ireland, Ireland, Great Britain and European level.
His latest achievements were gold at the 400m and javelin, plus silver at 200 metres in the Northern Ireland championships at the Mary Peters track in the suburbs of Belfast, back in August.
And in the All-Ireland, he pocketed four gold – in the 100m and 200m, javelin and discus.
Then he gained that fifth world place in Italy against 80 veterans in his age group.
Said Earl: “There were about 7,000 athletes in the various age groups, including American legends like Ed Moses, Willie Banks and Bill Collins – it’s growing all the time.
Well, I don’t think Edwin does masters (and the turnout was close to 9,000), but the writer’s heart is in the right place.
4 Responses
And unless Riccione re-invented the Decathlon, the order of events was kind of mixed up. Discus is the second event of day 2, high jump is the 4th event of day 1.
Remember that alleged Churchill quote about “two nations kept apart by a common language”?
To those US cousins who need it, let me offer an explanation of this use of the word “knackered”. It’s a common phrase over here to describe being extremely tired, worn out, etc. See:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/30/messages/2327.html for context.
However, that web piece also takes us below the waist for another use of the work “knacker”. Although the author of the piece does not know the origin of this, I believe that it relates to the use of small medaeval drums, which were worn on a belt around the waist by travelling musicians.
Not that this has any relevance to Earl’s sterling performance in Riccione, much of which I witnessed. Based on the conversation I had with Earl after his decathlon 1500m, I’d say “knackered” has the same meaning in Northern Ireland, where Earl hails from, as it does in my neck of the woods!
In german language “knacker” colloquial means a “old man”. 😉
I’m far from knackered.
Leave a Reply