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The Pacemakers

A group of highly competitive and ambitious athletes, all over the age of 90, compete for gold in the Olympics of OAP sport.

The Pacemakers follows the fun, surprising story of a group of men, all over the age of 90, as they pursue their dream of becoming world champion athletes. Director Selah Hennessy spent a year filming with an international sub-culture of athletes as they prepare for the Olympics of OAP sport: the World Masters Championship.

Charles Eugster, 97, is considered Britain's fittest OAP and he has become a star athlete in the world of senior athletics. A former dentist, he only started running at 95 - but in the space of just two short years, he has managed to ratchet up multiple world championship titles and two world records. Now, spurred by a burning desire to break as many world records as he can, Charles has taken up a new challenge: the long jump. With the intense and unrelenting guidance of his Austrian coach Sylvia, he is training to break the world record.

Meanwhile, 92-year-old Peruvian Hugo Delgado, 92-year-old Jim Sinclair from Australia, Zhiyong Wang from China and Dixon Hemphill from the United States aspire for gold in the 100m.

These are a highly competitive group of athletes, all hell-bent on being champions. They are also very determined old men battling major obstacles - from early onset dementia to terminal lung disease - in order to fulfil their ambitions. In this fun, warm-hearted and intimate portrait, we see the ups and downs as they prepare for two major world championships in Australia and South Korea, where they have the chance to prove themselves on the world stage - and show that we are never too old to dream big.

59 minutes

Last on

Wed 13 Sep 2017 02:40

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:10

    Alexandre Desplat

    The Mystical Union

Credits

Role Contributor
Participant Hugo Delgado
Participant Iris Delgado
Participant Charles Eugster
Participant Federico Fisher
Participant Sylvia Gattiker
Participant Dixon Hemphill
Participant June Hemphill
Participant Carolyn Langenwalter
Participant James Sinclair
Participant Jingning Wang
Participant Zhiyong Wang
Executive Producer Riete Oord
Director Selah Hennessy
Producer Jez Lewis
Producer Rachel Wexler
Composer Justin Nicholls
Director of photography Luciana Riso
Editor Rupert Houseman
Focus Puller Pietro Cusimano
Focus Puller Yeonju Kim
Camera Operator Luke Corbett
Camera Operator Sam Bodhi Field
Camera Operator Ben Howden
Camera Operator Ross Metcalfe
Camera Operator Will Storey
Camera Operator Jason Thomas
Camera Operator Michael Titter
Camera Assistant George Graham
Sound Recordist Barney Brookes
Sound Recordist Jason North
Sound Recordist Brett Stayt
Runner Georgina Isles
Translation Carmen Arcos
Translation Jacky Chiang
Translation Alessandra D'Avanzo
Translation Maudie Fraser
Translation Tina Sijiao Li
Translation Shi Shengjie
Translation Aurora Vogeli
Producer Rachel Heywood
Colourist Vicki Matich
On-line editing Adam Grant
Re-recording mixer Matt Skilton
Production Company Bungalow Town Productions Ltd

Broadcasts