Tuomas Ukonmaanaho of Prince George never dreamed he would become a member of two teams to break two world records in track and field at the BC Masters Indoor Championship held in Kamloops last weekend.
He got the call when one of the Greyhounds Masters Track & Field Club relay team racers took ill.
“The gang from Vancouver - my running buddies - called me up to ask if I’d be able to run if one of them couldn’t,” the 77-year-old member of the Prince George Track and Field Club said.
“The requirement was I had to be over 75 years old and they needed a warm body. I fit that.”
They assured him that they would give him a heads up if he needed to run on Friday night so that he could go to Kamloops on Thursday and rest up to race Friday night.
The call never came and "Ukon Tom" as he is known assumed the other runner would be up for the challenge so he drove the six hours to get to Kamloops on Friday only to walk into the athletic facility, get his number, compete in the individual pole vault and the shot put before being told he was racing in the 4 x 800 metre relay less than an hour later.
Ukonmaanaho is a decathlete so he is familiar with competing in multiple events in one day. He broke the BC record for decathlon for 75-79 year old men by more than 2,000 points and the Canadian record by more than 200 points last August in Surrey.
The M75 4x800m team ran their race in 13:07.96, crushing the previous world record of 13:44.84 set last year in Spain by more than 36 seconds.
Ukonmaanaho was on the 4 x 800 metre team with Barrie Dargie, 77, Pat Harton, 80, and Mark Stewart, 77.
Dargie ran his half a mile in three minutes and 22 seconds, followed by Ukonmaanaho (3:26), Harton (3:11) and Stewart (3:06).
The next day, Ukonmaanaho, Dargie and Stewart teamed up with Piara Bhullar in the M75 4x400 relay, where they won in a world record time of 5:24.52, topping the previous record of 5:37.03 set in 2020 by a team in Germany by more than 12 seconds. Stewart ran his quarter mile in 1:21, followed by Ukonmaanaho (1:17), Dargie (1:29), and Bhullar (1:18).
“It doesn’t feel any different but on the other hand I can’t quite believe it,” Ukonmaanaho said of his accomplishments.
“I can say that I kept up with my teammates and held my own when it came to my time in the 4 x 400 metre race,” Ukonmaanaho said. “I am lucky.”
In his individual events this past weekend, Ukonmaanaho took first in pole vault, high jump and the 200m sprint and took second in the shot put. He opted out of long jump because his legs just couldn't do it after all the running, he said.
