An 81-year-old monk, dubbed the UK’s 'only sprinting monk,' is training for his next competitive race to raise money for children in Africa.
Father John Gribben, who runs six days a week, will compete in the 60m, 200m, and 400m sprints at the British Masters Indoor Championships in February.
Inspired by Chariots of Fire, he hopes to win gold while fundraising for Tariro, a charity supporting young people in Zimbabwe.
Despite his age, he still participates in Parkruns and maintains a rigorous training schedule.
Father John Gribben, who runs six days a week, will compete in the 60m, 200m, and 400m sprints at the British Masters Indoor Championships in February.
Inspired by Chariots of Fire, he hopes to win gold while fundraising for Tariro, a charity supporting young people in Zimbabwe.
Despite his age, he still participates in Parkruns and maintains a rigorous training schedule.
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FunTranscript
00:00My name is John Gribben. I'm a member of the Community of the Resurrection, a religious
00:14community of which most people would call us monks. I've been in this community for
00:2246 years, roughly halfway through my time here. I took up running. I'd never run before.
00:33I was a bit of a wimp. I found that I really enjoyed it and eventually parkrun came along
00:41and I joined other people in the running. And then in recent years, very recent years,
00:48I started to do running in competitions. In the near future, I'm going to be running
00:56at Leigh Valley, an indoor competition in which I'll run for, I'll run the 60 metres,
01:05the 200 and if I'm not dead by that time, probably the 400 as well. I'm doing it because
01:15I love doing it, but I want to sponsor the training for it to help a charity that one
01:25of the brothers, Father Nicholas Stebbing from Zimbabwe founded a charity called Tariro,
01:38which means hope, hope for the young people in Zimbabwe. He has helped young people to
01:47find employment, to get accommodation and to get education. Some of them have become
01:56doctors, some of them have become tradesmen, but all of them are making Zimbabwe a better
02:05place, giving hope. Most of them were orphans or from abusive families at times. This is
02:14my way of trying to say thank you for the happiness that running has given to me.