Aged 84, iron-willed Richard just keeps on rowing towards records

He has a leaky heart valve, a knee replacement, type 2 diabetes, and dodgy lungs but it’s his iron will that makes 84-year-old Richard Morgan a winner at indoor rowing, a sport he took up aged 73.

Currently in training for the over-80s World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston next February, Richard won gold at his first outing in the national championships about a decade ago.

“I was very disappointed,” he says, “when I discovered I was the sole competitor. I asked the chap in charge what the record was in the 2000m and I told him I’d be back to break that record the following year. And I did.”