Post by carruthersjam on Dec 2, 2007 9:24:33 GMT -8
Superfit Les is still pumping iron aged 87 [Note he is 87 now - the article was written when he was 83 - he still trains today and his bench press max is 60kg]
LES D'Arcy does not believe in a quiet retirement.
At 83 he has astonished the world of weightlifting with his Herculean achievements, which make him the oldest competitor in the country.
The superfit octogenarian will next test his strength today at the British Weightlifting Association Masters Championships in Shropshire, where he will be the only one in the over-80s category.
But the widowed father of six and grandfather – who won the over-75s European Olympic Gold in weightlifting in 1998 – is not just a heavyweight in this sport.
He is also a five-times world champion at table tennis, his latest triumph last Saturday when he beat the singles and double gold medallist in his class at the North of England Masters Championships.
His 66-year-old weightlifting coach Alan Lomax said: "I have never seen anybody go as fast – he can't wait to lift them. At the last competition he was like a young Fred Astaire."
It all began when as a 13-year-old, Mr D'Arcy saw his younger cousin boosting his physique by pumping iron.
The self-confessed "five-stone weakling" thought it would never do for the 11-year-old to look bigger than him. Already a keen table tennis player, he added weightlifting to his sports regime and has never looked back.
The 10st 5lb lifter still trains in a converted garage at his home in Lupset, near Wakefield, which has served as a gym for him and about 100 young people from the neighbourhood for 50 years.
He is proud to report how one particular protege, a disabled man who began by lifting a broomstick from his wheelchair as a teenager, went on to lift weights and qualify as a table tennis coach.
Community work is also one of Mr D'Arcy's activities, and he is also a table tennis coach himself, a poet, chess player and more recently a cook.
His interests even include speaking to self-help groups about depression, which he suffered from when a close friend died suddenly 18 months ago. His wife Joyce died eight years ago and he fought off skin cancer two years ago.
"If you are fit, you can think better and do everything better," said the former PE teacher at Ossett Secondary School.
Mr D'Arcy believes many more elderly people could benefit from sport. "Exercise little and often, that's the secret – but see a doctor first and make sure you have a competent coach," he said.
Mr Lomax confessed that he thought the last bereavement would be the end of Mr D'Arcy's lifting career but watched with amazement how he pulled through.
