Ron Robertson of New Zealand took gold in the M75 cross-country race in Perth, but fell short of his goal — medaling in four distance events. It wasn’t a bridge too far, since he became WMA Athlete of the Year in 2011 after winning four golds (three in WRs) at Sacramento worlds. But this year an injury blocked his way. As his local paper explained: “Six weeks before the championships, he felt a ‘slight twinge’ as he lifted a bike into the back of his station wagon. ‘After four or five days I realised something was up, and an X-ray showed a tendon in my right shoulder had pulled off the bone.’ With travel and entry fees paid, he decided to push on and hope for the best. He trained on a bike and ran with a shoulder brace. ‘It was pretty painful. I wasn’t full of confidence going over there. I wasn’t sure I would get through the races. With painkillers I got through two-thirds of the cross-country without too much of a problem, but the last third — when the pain kicked in — wasn’t pleasant.'”

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Ron Robertson came home from Perth, Australia, this week with a gold medal and mixed emotions. On the first day of the World Masters Athletics Championships, retired Gisborne orchardist Robertson won the eight-kilometre cross-country race for men 75 to 79 years old.

His time, 35 minutes 16.16 seconds, was 47 seconds ahead of the second placegetter and would have had him fourth in the 21-strong men’s 70-to-74 field. But it was the only one of four races he entered that he was able to complete. He did not even start two of them.

Robertson was the 2011 World Masters Athletics male athlete of the year, an award he received at a gala function in Monaco. That year, at the world masters championships in Sacramento, Robertson, then 70, had set three world age-group records (in the 2000-metre steeplechase, 1500m and 5000m) as he won four gold medals . . . he also won the eight-kilometre cross-country.

The Perth edition of the world masters was the first he had attended since then, and he did not decide to go until relatively late.

“I thought I might never get one as close to New Zealand again,” Robertson said. “They’re held every two years, usually in Europe or North America.”

Before Sacramento, it had been 10 years since he competed at the world masters championships and he had had an eight-year break with little serious competition. His 2011 medal haul brought his world masters tally to 31 gold and three silver medals, with 15 world records.

So, at 75 and in the first year of a new age group, he was hopeful. But six weeks before the championships he felt a “slight twinge” as he lifted a bike into the back of his stationwagon.

“After four or five days I realised something was up, and an X-ray showed a tendon in my right shoulder had pulled off the bone.”

With travel and entry fees paid, he decided to push on and hope for the best. He trained on a bike and ran with a shoulder brace.

“It was pretty painful. I wasn’t full of confidence going over there. I wasn’t sure I would get through the races. With painkillers I got through two thirds of the cross-country without too much of a problem, but the last third — when the pain kicked in — wasn’t pleasant.

“My tactic was to go out fast, and I opened up a gap of nearly a minute before halfway. Then it was just a matter of holding it to the finish.”

Three days later he had his first track race, the 5000m.

Halfway through the race he was leading but started feeling “pretty bad pain” coming up the outside of his right leg from the knee, and had to pull out. In nearly 40 years of competitive running — he was a late starter — he had never felt anything like that, but he thought it probably had something to do with his favouring the injured right shoulder during training.

With a five-day break before his next race, the 1500 metres, he hoped that with treatment and strapping he would be able to compete. But having signed in and started his jog-and-strideout warm-up, he immediately realised he would not be able to run, and the following day’s steeplechase would also be out.

The French athlete who won all three of those track races had been over 80 seconds behind Robertson, in third place, in the cross-country. It was “a little bit frustrating”.

“I’m not a great spectator, especially at an event I could be in,” Robertson said. “Until then, I’d never had an injury that prevented me from taking part in any race at any world championships I’d been to, and I’ve been to about eight.”

The first he attended was in Rome, in 1985. Now Robertson is looking towards recovery. He saw an orthopaedic specialist this week and was referred for a scan to see whether the injury can be repaired.

A Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, multiple winner of Gisborne’s Sportsman of the Year award, member of the Tairawhiti Legends of Sport “hall of fame”, and Gisborne Harrier Club cross-country open champion 19 times in 20 years (he was away competing at the world masters the year he missed out), Robertson now faces the prospect of having to wait and see.