'Super ager' Pat (90) to feature on RTE this Monday

Ireland’s most renowned older athlete, Nenagh’s Pat Naughton, may have turned 90, but he’s still not giving up competing at running and throwing events despite his advancing years.

Now Pat, who celebrated his nine decades on Earth last September, is to feature in a programme on prime time television on Monday next. The life of the Nenagh Olympic athlete will feature on the programme Super Agers, a documentary examining the positive aspects of ageing by observing older people whose physical and mental ability could be considered exceptional for any age.

The programme will be screened at 9.35pm just after the main evening news on RTÉ One. And indeed Pat is someone who certainly lives up to the word “exceptional”, given his continued involvement in competitive athletics. At the recent National Indoor Track and Field Championships in Athlone he scooped three gold medals: in the shot putt, 60 metres sprint and long jump.

“I have competed for almost 50 years now as a Masters athlete,” says Pat.

But his involvement in athletics is much longer when once adds in the additional 30 years or more that Pat spent competing before he reached Master’s level at the age of 40.

“My competitors are beginning to become less and less as the years go on,” says Pat.