Like a fine wine, West Waterford's Joe Gough just keeps getting better and better.
"The body is 70, so you say 'God, there's going to be aches and pains,' and of course there are, but you just have to mind yourself. I don't go overboard, I'm still just 'Joe ordinary soap,' I'm not anything hectic. Anybody can do this. You just have to be patient and build up your strength and your mileage and your speed and away you go," Joe told WLR Sport.
Flying the tricolour in Pescara the past fortnight, he picked up the European Masters 1500m title last week to set the tone for the meet.
Tipped as the favorite coming into that 1500m final, Gough justified his #1 ranking ahead of the decider, crossing the line first in 5 minutes 29.21 seconds.
On Friday morning, he continued his amazing success rate at major World and European Masters Championships.
The 800m title was wrapped up in a similar fashion, with Gough - who turned 70 back in January - crossing the line in 2 minutes 29.85 seconds, setting a new Irish record in the process.
Winning European and World titles has become somewhat routine to Joe who only started his athletics career at the age of 35.
"Like, I've ten world gold medals. I started off at 35 to try to win my first Munster gold and I failed. I failed the first year, I failed the second year and it was only in the third year of trying that I got my first Munster gold. Little did I know that after some years would I have ten world gold medals. I mean, I can't tell you how many European gold I have."
