79-year old man competing in his 16th World Police and Fire Games
Seventy-nine-year-old Paul Jenkins is competing in his 16th World Police and Fire Games, hoping to add four more gold medals to his collection.
"I'm 79 now, I was just over 55 when I started," Jenkins said.
The retired corrections officer from Wales will compete in four different events this week and hopes to bring home the gold in each event. With this being the 16th time he's competed, he's already got 38 gold, 20 silver and 4 bronze medals in his collection.
"I'm running the cross country, 10K cross country, 10K track, 5K track and the half marathon the last day," Jenkins said. "The last games, I took part in the same four events and I won four gold. So, I've come back to repeat, hopefully, again."
Though he started competing over 20 years ago because he had his eyes on the prize, Jenkins said that now he attends the games because of the people.
"We meet from all over the world and some people we see after two years, I've had Japanese firefighters come and stay at our house. You know, we're all friends, every one of us. It's one big family."
After Birmingham's competition concludes, the next games will be held in Perth, Australia. Jenkins said he hopes to be competing in those games as well.
"I'll be 80 then, so we'll see," he said. "I might be tempting fate to say yes, but we'll see how it goes.