The first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award was received by Tuomas Ukonmaanaho, 79, during the Prince George Track & Field Club awards ceremony on Monday, Sept. 23 at Masich Place Stadium.
“Tom is an amazing source of inspiration to all of us at the track,” said Bryce Gladdish, Prince Goerge Track & Field Club president.
“We are so fortunate that he shares his time with us and that we are able to see him train and compete. He stretches our minds about what is possible, is an absolute pleasure to have around, and is a true ambassador for the sport.”
Ukonmaanaho, who took up athletics in earnest in 2005 after a 30-year hiatus, has World Masters Championships gold medals, countless Canadian Masters Championships gold medals and the same goes for BC Masters Championships gold medals. Ukonmaanaho also held at least 47 Masters records that he achieved between the ages of 65 and 79, including individual outdoor, individual indoor, and because he knows the value of teamwork he also has earned indoor and outdoor relay records, which includes two indoor world records.
Within these records there are at least 29 current records including the world relay records for 4x400m and 4x800m. And he's a sprinter.
Most of his individual records are held in the 200m sprint.
During the awards ceremony at the track on Monday night Elena Thomas, past president of the local track club, presented Ukonmaanaho with the award.
“We wanted to award this athlete the Lifetime Achievement Award, the first of its kind for our club and I want you all to realize that everybody can work towards being this athlete,” Thomas said. “It’s never too late to start, to improve, to keep training. This is an athlete who got faster and faster as they got older and older. This athlete is going to be 80 this year and he continues to break records.”
When Ukonmaanaho made his way to Thomas to accept the award, he was honoured with a standing ovation from his teammates.
“Tom you continue to inspire us all - young and old,” Thomas said. Then Thomas turned to the audience.
“Because you know you all want to be as fast as Tom."
Ukonmaanaho accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award and a framed list of all his records graciously.
“If you do it long enough, you’re just about the only one taking part so it’s easy to break records,” Ukonmaanaho laughed.
President Bryce Gladdish then added a few words.
“That’s another thing that got left off the list is Tom is probably the most fun out of anybody at the track club and he is consistently out there, pushing us all to have a better time and to push our times better as well. Thank you, Tom, very much on behalf of the entire Prince George Track & Field Club.”
Ukonmaanaho has been gifted with a lifetime membership at the club.
His records span a variety of events including sprints, high jump and pole vault and the crowning achievement of the decathlon, which sees 10 events completed over a gruelling two days.
Decathletes are said to be the greatest athletes in the world and the contest sees the athlete compete in this order of events as a test of strength, speed and endurance. The 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 metres on the first day, then the 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m that sees the toughest challenge at the end of the competition.
Ukonmaanaho is the current M75 Canadian Decathlon record holder and achieved this feat when he was 76 years old in 2021 with a score of 5297. This is also a BC record for men between the ages of 75-79 and it beat the previous BC record by more than 2,000 points. An achievement almost unheard of in the field of athletics.
But Ukon Tom, as he’s known at the track, didn’t stop there. He competed again the very next year and achieved an even higher score to lock it in at 5443 points.
In 2022 Ukonmaanaho was a last-minute substitution for a member of the men’s 75-79-year-olds (M75) indoor relay teams during the BC Masters Indoor Championship hosted by the Kamloops Track & Field Club from February 25 to 27.
The first race was held Friday night and was a gruelling 4x800m during most people’s off season.
“My running buddies called me up about two weeks before the race to say one of them was sick,” Ukonmaanaho said. “I told them they better find somebody to replace him. They said ‘no, we want you.’ The requirement was I had to be over 75 years old and they needed a warm body. I fit that.”
They said they would update him closer to the race but when he didn’t hear anything further he figured he was off the hook.
Sprinter Ukonmaanaho drove from Prince George to Kamloops that Friday morning in the dead of winter, walked into the university’s indoor track complex and took gold in the pole vault and silver in shot put and then ran the 800 metre relay an hour later.
“And it was painful,” Ukonmaanaho recalled. “I didn’t know how to pace myself for 800 metres.”
The team also included Barrie Bargie, 77, Pat Harton, 80, and Mark Stewart, 77. The world record time was set at 13:07.96.
The very next day, less than 24 hours later, Ukon Tom stepped up once again for the 4x400m relay that saw him make the first spot, then Fred Pawluk, 75; Mark Stewart, 77 and Terry Riggins, 75, finished the race. Another world record time was set at 5:24.52.
“It still doesn’t register that we broke two world records,” Ukonmaanaho said recently.
Ukonmaanaho continued to defy the odds in recent years. It's almost impossible for any sprinter to get faster after a certain age. Eventually masters athletes will peak at a younger age and then decline.
Ukonmaanaho got faster in his 200m sprint beginning at 70 years old, then improved his indoor record at 71 and at 72 with a time of 29.50 which he earned in 2017 and is still the current BC record holder. His outdoor 200m BC record is 29.26 and still stands from 2018.
Ukonmaanaho also has world championship wins, national championship wins and BC championship wins.
But don’t ask him how many medals he has earned. He doesn’t keep track and at times will give away the hardware.
Most recently, after earning six gold medals at the Canadian Championships held in Regina in 2022 for the 100m, 200m, 400m, shot put, javelin and pole vault, he met up with a friend.
“He's a farmer - I gave him one of the gold medals because he is the hardest working person I have ever met - he deserves it more than me," Ukonmaanaho said at the time.
The most memorable moments in Ukonmaanaho’s athletic career came from the Indoor World Championships hosted by the Kamloops Track & Field Club in 2010. Ukon Tom was 65 and was asked to join the men’s team of 65 to 69-year-olds in the 4x200m relay team.
The Canadian team was up against the US, Great Britain and Germany.
“They were not pushover countries, these were fast teams and I went into the race thinking if we beat just one team we could medal,” Ukonmaanaho said. “And in the end we beat them all. I like that medal.”
He ran the first leg of the race and the US runner was on the outside lane right beside him. Ukonmaanaho kept pace with him for the first 100 metres.
“Then I put the pedal to the metal and came in ahead of every other runner,” he said. During the rest of the race it was a challenging race but in the end the team was victorious. The Canadian team was crowned world champions, finishing the race in 2:01.80 with Germany coming in a full second behind at 2:02.87, US at 2:03.87 and Great Britain at 2:03.89.
The Canadian team, along with Ukonmaanaho, then 65, included Vern Shook, 68, Lee Southern, 65, and Stanley Badowski, 67.
Not only is Ukonmaanaho an elite athlete but he is also a mentor and a source of inspiration for members of the Prince George Track & Field Club.
“Tom is very deserving of the first PGTFC Lifetime Achievement Award. As a coach with PGTFC, I feel very lucky to know Tom the way I do,” Lauren Matheson said.
“During practice, he often shares stories from his competitive days while training with our youth athletes and blows them away by his speed and graceful running form. It's a special moment to see him connect with the kids, given he used to do the same with me when I was still a training athlete over 7 years ago now. Watching him do this now with the next generation of athletes, like he did with mine and the generations prior to mine, goes to show how long he’s been dedicated to PGTFC. He holds a wealth of knowledge from his years of experience, making him a great person to learn from, whether you’re a coach or an athlete. I’m really proud to know Tom, and from my unique perspective as both a former athlete who trained with him and a current coach, I can confidently say he inspires us all in countless ways.”
Along with his at least 47 records this is just a small sample of Ukon Tom’s medal count, which includes his most recent achievements that took place in March 2024 at the BC Masters Indoor Championship where he took gold in the 60m, 200m, 400 m and pole vault where he tied his BC record for 2.30m from 2020.
In the BC Masters Indoor Championships in Kamloops in 2023 Ukon Tom took gold in the 60m, 400m, high jump and shot put and pole vault.
At the Canadian outdoor championships in Regina in 2022 he took six gold medals, including in the 100m, 200m, 400m, pole vault, javelin and shot put.
At the BC Masters Indoor Championships in 2022 when he was part of the teams that set world records in the 4x400 and the 4x800m in less than 24 hours. He also took gold in the 200m, pole vault and a silver in shot put.
In 2020 at the BC Indoors he took the 60m, 200m and the pole vault BC Records and two Canadian record for the 4x200 and the 4x400m relays.
In 2019 at the Canadian Masters Indoors he took gold in the 60m, 200m, 400m, and Canadian record in the 4x200m and a silver in high jump.
And in 2023 55+ BC Games Ukon Tom took gold in 50m, 200m and pole vault, silver in 100m and 400m and bronze in shot put and javelin.
In 2022 at the 55+ BC Games he took gold in 50m, 100m, 200m, pole vault and silver in 400m and bronze in shot put and javelin.
In the BC 55+ BC Games in 2019 Tom took gold in 100m, 200m, and pole vault and silver in javelin, shot put and 400m.
Thanks to Harold Marioka, BC Athletics Masters record keeper since 1999, for the many hours it took to search for all Ukonmaanaho’s records.
Editor’s note: Reporter Christine Dalgleish is a member of the Prince George Track & Field Club.
