66-year-old cycling champion has no plans to slow down

Published on Monday 12 April 2010 09:57

NOT many people can say they have beaten an Olympic cyclist on the track.

But then again, there's nobody quite like grandfather Johnny Murphy – a 66-year-old cycle speedway legend and the oldest British champion at the sport.

Mr Murphy, who has been involved in cycle speedway for almost six decades, beat a young Chris Hoy in a cycling competition almost 20 years ago.

Remarkably, Mr Murphy – now a pensioner – is still riding and still winning trophies.

The father-of-one from Joppa has won a host of trophies since he started the sport at the age of eight and despite most of his competitors only being in their 20s, he is still battling it out – and winning – almost 60 years later.

The retired taxi driver said: "Most of the people I'm competing against are in their 20s and that makes it really tough. I find that racing with all the young ones keeps me young as well."

Cycle speedway racing was developed in the late 1940s. Four riders race four laps on an oval track, on bikes which have low gears and no brakes.

Mr Murphy added: "Your legs are going like pistons so it's full pelt for four laps. It's quite an energetic sport."

Mr Murphy, who competed around the world, has had his fair share of bumps and bruises, with the worst accident taking place at the world championships in Manchester in 2003, where he smashed his ankle and was left in plaster for three months.

"The doctor asked me how old I was and I said I was going to be 60 that year. The doctor said, 'I don't think we should be examining your ankle, we should be examining your head.'"

In July last year Mr Murphy became the over-60s British champion, a title he will defend at in Southampton in August.

He said: "The award was presented to me by Chris Hoy. I remember Chris taking part in a cycle speedway race when he was about 15, and I beat him. That's my claim to fame but I'm not going to race against him again in case he beats me."

Mr Murphy won the Scottish Championships four times in the 1960s and 70s and was part of the winning British Lions Team in the cycle speedway Ashes test matches against Australia in 1988. In 2007 he was the first Scot to be receive the Wilkinson Sword Award for services to cycle speedway.

He added: "I have no plans at all to give the sport up – I will give it up when I'm in my box.

"This has been my whole life and I wouldn't have swapped it for all the tea in China."