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WATCH: 78-year-old pole B.C. pole vaulter

Tom Ukonmaanaho is a 78-year-old Prince George pole vaulter.

Three Prince George masters athletes returned from the BC Masters Indoor Championships in Kamloops last weekend with a whole lot of gold.

The event was hosted by Kamloops Track & Field Club at the Thompsons Rivers University from Feb. 24-26.

Tuomas Ukonmaanaho, 78, was the big winner with five gold medals in his five events.

Ukon Tom, as the Prince George Track & Field Club call him, is in the M75 category that sees men between 75 and 79 years old compete. Ukonmaanaho did the 60m in 9.34 seconds, 400m in 1:18.35; high jumped 1.15m, shot putted 9.17m and pole vaulted, yes, he pole vaults at 78 years old and leapt 2.20m.

“No one should ever look at my technique when I do the pole vault because I have none,” Ukon Tom laughed.

Joan Harris, 60, took gold in weight throw with 10.04m in the W60 category and silver in shot put with a throw of 8.21m.

Christine Dalgleish, 59, (yes, that’s me) took gold in W55 in weight throw with a throw of 9.83m, which was good enough to break my last year’s BC record of 8.77m and gold in shot put with my personal best ever throw of 8.55m.