Multi-eventer Bob Hewitt is USATF Male Masters Athlete of Year
A 2009 story on Bob paints a decanut picture:
As a teen, Bob Hewitt idolized Bob Mathias, who had just stunned the athletic world by winning the Gold Medal in the decathlon in the 1948 Olympics — at age 17! Hewitt dreamed of becoming a decathlete, too, and of winning a Gold Medal.
In that he was only an “average” high school track athlete, did not participate in track and field in college, and followed this up with a couple of decades as a self-proclaimed couch potato, it would appear that Bob’s dreams of decathlon glory were dead. It would be obvious to us realists that his window of opportunity was gone. Dreams, however, never die; they just go into a form of hibernation. Such was true for Bob Hewitt.
In his mid-sixties, Bob, an avid tennis player at the time, took in a masters track meet. This rekindled his interest in competing in track and field, and the following year, at age 65, he began his masters track career. In his first track meet, he took second place in the javelin; this sounds like a good start until you learn that he was one of only two competitors in the event.
Bob went on to try his hand at sprinting and jumping events and found that he was an especially good jumper. With encouragement from an experienced fellow competitor/friend, Bob tried more and more track and field events.
After much success, he decided to see if he could master all the disciplines that make up the decathlon — 100m sprint, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the dreaded 1500m endurance run (To see masters athletes competing in these individual events, go to YouTube.com and type in “masters decathlon”).
In 2005, now in his early seventies, Bob, on short notice and with limited practice (he’d had no practice at all in two of the events), entered his first ever decathlon competition, but not just any competition. It was the World Masters Athletics Championships in San Sabastian, Spain! In this first attempt Bob surprised himself, and put the other top competitors on notice, coming in third out of 18 decathletes from around the world. Winning the Bronze Medal gave him hope that with some dedicated practice he could finally reach his childhood dream of Gold. And he did!
Bob now holds multiple World and American Records in the decathlon, pentathlon (5 track & field events), the heptathlon (7 track & field events), and individual events, such as the triple jump. He holds the decathlon World Record for his age division, 75-79, with 8,526 points scored last year; this point total is the highest ever achieved by any male athlete 40 or better.
2009 was a banner year for Bob Hewitt as he competed in the 75-79 age group. Here are just some of his results:
• Bob won the USATF Masters Indoor Heptathlon in Kenosha, Wisconsin in March with a record-setting 6,273 points
• Later in March, at the USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships, Landover, Maryland, he set a World Record 4,437 points in the pentathlon — winning all five individual events
• At the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah in October (where more than 10,000 masters athletes 50 and over competed), Bob, competing in several individual events, won Gold in the triple jump, long jump, 50 and 100m sprints and Silver in the high jump.
Bob is now a Gold-Medal-winning and World-Record-holding decathlete (pentathlete, heptathlete and triple-jump specialist) and is looking forward to competing in more competitions, including the WMA Championships in Brazil as an 80-year-old. His decathlon dream lay dormant for decades, but it didn’t die. He was able to resurrect it because there really is no time limit on dreams!
Have you given up on a dream? If Bob Hewitt of Gresham, Oregon can finally reach his athletic dream in his seventies, then what dream can you rekindle? Could it be in sports, in the arts, in business, in…?? No, dreams don’t have a time limit; they just rest quietly until you are ready for them! Are you ready?
8 Responses
Major congratulations to the two overall winners, Bob Hewitt and Irene Obera. I’m proud to know them, and what a pleasure it is to have such superb athletes in our midst.
Of course, the list above shows that we have a plethora of fine masters athletes in the US. One small correction: I think that would be the underrated Damon Blakemore in the 50-59 list (the copy shows a different spelling). Damon has performed superbly in our meets and deserves his selection.
Congrads. Well deserved.
Pete, thank you very much for the kind words. More importantly thanks for correcting the spelling of my name. It’s good to be able to see your name in lights, but better if you can recognize it when you see it 🙂 !!
Good Job Damon. Well deserved recognition. Great Job!
Congrats to all, but a special congrats to my teammate and friend Damon! I have witnessed the hard work you have put in. Your recognition is deserved!
Bob Hewitt is a total STUD and a huge inspiration to me along with many others. I truly enjoy watching him perform and train.
Keep it up!
Congrats to Bob and Irene. Also congrats to Oscar Peyton who trains harder than anyone I know and is helpful with tips for all.
My first Masters competition was the 2008 National Decathlon in Joplin, MO and Bob was a spry 75 year-old at the time. Bob posted a score of 8526 which blew away the former world record and was nearly 1400 points better than any of the 60 or so people in the entire competition! I spent the next 7 months singing his praises to all of my friends telling them of the wonderful marks turned in by this excellent athlete, (he had 3 1000+ events in the meet, 4.28 in the LJ, 1.34 in the HJ, and 2.70 in the PV, AND ran the dang hurdles in 15.04!). I met Bob at the following year’s Heptathlon and told him of my admiration as I rattled off most of his marks from the Decathlon, and his response was “I can’t believe you remember all of that, I didn’t think anyone was paying that much attention.” Bob, we all pay that much attention when someone is that talented, has so much fun competing, and shares his pleasure with everyone around. You’re an inspiration and a marvelous representative of our sport. Congratulations on this well-deserved award and I look forward to seeing you again on the track.
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