Running News Daily

The World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, have brought together thousands of athletes from around the world, but few have captured the imagination quite like Thailand’s Sawang Janpram.

At 106 years old, Janpram is the oldest competitor at the 2026 championships, where more than 11,000 participants from 106 countries have gathered for a celebration of athletics across generations.

Yet Janpram’s remarkable story is not simply about longevity. It is about a decision he made late in life — one that transformed his health, his outlook and ultimately made him an international masters athlete.

A former school principal and teacher, Janpram did not spend his retirement preparing for athletics competitions. He only began exercising regularly at the age of 80, after seeing people around him become increasingly inactive and bedridden as they grew older. His daughter, Siripan, who is now 74 and continues to accompany him as a training partner, also played an important role in encouraging an active lifestyle.

What began as a way of protecting his health eventually became something far greater.

Janpram started competing in athletics at 97, proving that there is no universally prescribed age at which a new chapter has to end. Since then, he has travelled internationally to compete and has accumulated 78 medals, according to reports ahead of the Daegu championships.

His training is remarkably simple. He walks, runs short distances and practises throwing events including the javelin, discus and shot put. His routine is not built around sophisticated facilities or elaborate technology. It is built around consistency.

That consistency produced one of his most memorable performances last year.

At the 2025 World Masters Games in Taiwan, Janpram competed at 105 and won gold in four events in the 100-plus age category. He completed the 100 metres in 38.55 seconds and also won gold in the shot put, discus and javelin. He was the only competitor entered in his age group, but he still had to step onto the track and complete each event.

Now, at 106, he has returned to the international stage once again.

In Daegu, Janpram is competing in the discus and javelin. Ahead of his first event, he was seen at Daegu Stadium walking and jogging alongside his daughter despite temperatures exceeding 36°C. Asked about his condition, he simply indicated that he had slept well and felt ready for competition.

His presence is a powerful reminder of what masters athletics represents. The championships are not solely about records, medals or finishing times. They are also about participation, resilience and the freedom to keep challenging yourself long after conventional sporting careers have ended.

Janpram represents the extreme end of that philosophy.

At an age when most people have long since stepped away from organised sport, he is still travelling across borders, warming up on an international championship track and preparing to compete alongside athletes many decades younger than himself.

His story began with a simple fear — the fear of losing mobility and independence in old age. Sixteen years after he first entered competitive athletics, that decision has taken him onto one of the world's biggest masters stages.

Sawang Janpram did not wait for youth to begin his athletic journey.

He began at 80.

He started competing at 97.

And at 106, he is still showing up.

That may be his greatest victory of all.