Katikati gym trio, all 88, stay active with farm life connection
Morrissey is the elder of the clan, having celebrated his birthday first, in January.
He's been a regular at Katifit for eight years and works out at least three times a week. His daughter bought him a membership. Biking and rowing machines are his go-to machines.
'If I don't keep moving, I'll stop altogether,' he said. 'There's a few of us who come here at the same time, it's a social thing.'
Morrissey's background is in dairy farming and share milking. He's always enjoyed an active lifestyle, including years of basketball playing in various grades.
Morrissey pestered his mate Watson to join the gym as well.
Watson has diabetes and says regular cardio three times a week has helped to make a real difference to his test results.
He has been in the area since 1965, farming beef and sheep. He joined the gym about six years ago after some elbowing from Morrissey. Watson turned 88 over Easter.
Veteran number three is Alan McCaughan. He's just a few weeks younger than Morrissey.
He joined the gym soon after moving to Katikati nine years ago and goes three to five times per week.
McCaughan has a competitive streak, 'so anything I do, I want to do it right'.
'I'd never walked through the doors of a gym before. I thought I was starting to lose my upper body strength, so I asked them if they thought it would do me any good ... and I joined.'
Life on the farm was also McCaughan's prelude to an active senior life.
He and his late wife, Joy, worked on several different sheep and cattle farms before owning a 700-acre (283ha) Mangakino farm.
In his past, he's been involved in dog trials and equestrian endurance riding, winning gold in an endurance riding championship in Dubai.
'Endurance riding kept me fit as I trained and rode horses. All my jobs have been on the back of a horse since I was 15.'
McCaughan even wrote a book, Tonka the Red, about his farm hack horse, which went on to compete at world champion level.
Katifit has been operating for more than 20 years. Jenna and her husband, Andrew, purchased the gym in 2019.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
26-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
'It's fast, high adrenaline': South Island drifting champ's burning ambition
Drifter Sheldon Kneale at the recent Drift South Pro Series championship. PHOTO: SUPPLIED South Island drifting champion Sheldon Kneale has his sights on national success. The 30-year-old Ashburton driver won the recent Drift South Pro Series championship and is lining up for the New Zealand pro-sport series next year. He has come a long way from when he first started drifting more than 10 years ago. Thrill-seeking Kneale, a keen mountain biker and BMX rider in his youth, attended a drift school run via the Christchurch Car Club in his late teens. He ''loved it'', and likened drift battles, at speeds of up to 170km/h, to the thrill of downhill mountain biking, with the same adrenaline rush. ''You are constantly on the verge of crashing into other people but so in control that you don't crash,'' he said. ''It's fast, high adrenaline. There's heaps I like about it.'' After his first training session he attended every track event he could. There were competitions every three to four weeks, he said. Sheldon Kneale in the winner's circle. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Drivers get points for line, angle and style during drift events. The highest score out of 100 wins. 'It's the fastest growing motorsport in the world,'' he said. Kneale has been with the South Island-based Drift South Pro Series for the past seven seasons. During that time, he has won the championship twice - most recently at Easter and has multiple podium finishes. He said there was plenty of camaraderie in the drifting community, with drivers from all walks of life taking to the motorsport. ''Everyone is in the same mindset … I've got friends who do it as well,'' he said. They remained friends, even in battle. Kneale said he could not do what he did without the support of wife Emily, mother Donna and dad Jason who he described as ''his right-hand man'' at drift competitions. The young drifter, a carpenter by day, works alongside his dad, Jason, in the family business, Southern Traverse Homes. ''We're working together and playing together,'' Kneale said with a grin. He also has the support of many in the building industry who were backing his motorsport ability with sponsorship from Aotea Electrical, Welshy Contracting, Placemakers Ashburton, Roddick Plumbing, Mike Greer Homes Mid and South Canterbury and Johnson's Panel and Paint. Brother-in-law Nathan Lodwidge from Full Spectrum Fabrication was also on his side. He kitted out Kneale's Nissan Silvia S13 for competition, including fitting the roll cage, gearbox, suspension and engine mount. Kneale said he has had two vehicles since taking up the sport: A 180SX Nissan Silvia, which was written off after a collision during an event – which still irked him – and his currrent 1990s Nissan Silvia, which is older than him. He considered his current car better than the first, and used a standard 235mm road radial tyre, not the wider tyre such as a 265mm, as it benefited him long-term for the D1NZ Pro-Sport Series, limited to the narrower tyre. Kneale said every venue had their own track layout but events could include up to 30 laps with solo practice runs, then qualifying ranking battles between two drivers, followed by elimination battles. He could replace anywhere from 14 to 20 tyres per event, at a cost of about $100 each. He said he got a good deal on tyres from Tyre Owl in Christchurch. His favourite track was the A-track version 2, at Ruapuna Motorsport Park, but he was impressed by Highlands MotorSport Park in Cromwell which he recently visited.
Otago Daily Times
25-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Runner ‘chuffed' with record
Former Dunedin ultra-distance runner Damian Watson nears the finish line of the Wild Horse 200 in South Wales. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Damian Watson did not just break the previous record for the Wild Horse 200 ultra-distance race across Wales, he absolutely smashed it, then ground it up into dust. The race can take up to five days to complete, but the Dunedin-born and raised runner won it in 51 hours and 51 minutes — about five and a-half hours faster than the previous race record-holder. The 38-year-old's mother Sharon Watson, of Dunedin, said it was held on a gruelling 200-mile (322km) trail, traversing the mountains of South Wales, along Offa's Dyke, traversing the Beacons Way before catching the Heart Of Wales Line on to the Wales Coast Path and finish line at Worm's Head. "It's not like the Coast to Coast in New Zealand. It's a lot longer — 322km straight." She said about 120 competed from across Europe and Watson was the only New Zealander. "He's pretty chuffed with the win. He's really competitive. "He's always been a sports person. He played ice hockey — he was a former Ice Black — and hockey, and then he took to marathon running. "He can be very hard on himself. That's why he was so chuffed. "He recently got third in a big race in the North Island which was a lot less kilometres in it, and he wasn't happy about it. "He had the fitness, but he lost it mentally at the end." Whatever went wrong upstairs, he seems to have fixed, she said. "There was no way anyone was going to catch him. "He basically led from the start and he was about 20km ahead." She said he was "a proud Kiwi" and the family was delighted to see footage of him crossing the finish line, holding a New Zealand flag. It appears there is no rest for the wicked. She said he went back to work the next day as a Trafalgar Tours guide on a bus. He spends the northern hemisphere summers tour guiding and doing marathons where he can, and in the New Zealand summer, he returns to help run his deli at Muriwai Beach with his business partners. Mrs Watson said the former King's High School student was not the easiest child in the family to raise, because he was so "driven". "But we're very proud of him."
Otago Daily Times
25-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Sunderland heading back to the Premier League
Sunderland staged a remarkable comeback to beat Sheffield United 2-1 in the Championship playoff final with substitute Tom Watson sending them back to the Premier League by scoring the winner deep in stoppage time at Wembley. Teenager Watson drilled in a superb low finish from outside the penalty area to end the club's eight-season absence from the top flight which included a spell in the third tier. Victory in what is widely-regarded as the richest game in world football means Sunderland will benefit to the tune of £220 million ($NZ497 million) in extra revenue thanks to the Premier League's lucrative TV rights deals. Finances were the last thing on the minds of the Sunderland fans though when Watson sparked ecstatic scenes of joy. For United it was a crushing disappointment as they dominated much of the game against a side who finished 14 points below them in the regular Championship season. Incredibly it was the 19-year-old Watson's last contribution for his boyhood club before the winger moves to Brighton & Hove Albion, but what a parting gift it was. "It's unbelievable, we'll see each other in the Premier League next season," he said. "I have been thinking about it for weeks and that story was written when I came off the bench." YOUTHFUL SIDE It had looked like a bridge too far for French coach Regis Le Bris's youthful Sunderland side as they trailed to a stunning 25th-minute counter-attack goal by Tyrese Campbell in a first half completely dominated by United. Campbell's cool finish from Gus Hamer's inch-perfect pass rewarded United for a superb start in which they almost took the lead in the opening minutes when Kieffer Moore's header was brilliantly saved by Anthony Patterson. Sunderland also lost defender Luke O'Nien to a dislocated shoulder and were relieved not to be 2-0 down when Harrison Burrows bounced a shot into the net after a clearance fell to him but the effort was ruled out for offside after a VAR check. Chris Wilder's United, bidding to bounce straight back to the Premier League, were in control after the break but stunned in the 76th minute when Eliezer Mayenda showed great control and fired an unstoppable shot high into the netpast Michael Cooper. Extra time and the possibility of a penalty shootout loomed when Moore was guilty of giving the ball away and Watson was allowed to advance and write his name in Sunderland folklore. It completed an incredible playoff campaign by a Sunderland side who lost their last five regular-season games and then scraped past Coventry City in the semifinals with a last-gasp goal by Dan Ballard. Sunderland's surprise win means Jobe Bellingham, younger brother of Real Madrid's Jude, will be a Premier League player next season, something his sibling has yet to experience. "I take pride in saying I was one of the players to help this great club get back to where it belongs," he said.
