Cork's 80-year-old world masters champion still long way from finish line
Blarney native Michael Kiely stands on the podium after winning gold in the over-80s 800m at the World Masters Indoor Championships. Pic: Michael Cornyn
To prepare for winning a world title, Michael Kiely would take a lawnmower out into the field by his house in Shanballymore, Co Cork. Then he’d push it through the long grass, butchering away until he’d carved out a 400-metre lane.
“The big problem is the rabbits,” he says. “They’d come along digging holes and I fill them in, only they’d dig them again the next day.”
So then he’d fill them in again. In recent months, the 80-year-old was out there in all conditions. If it snowed, he’d stick on wellies and still churn out a session, hoping it would pay off.
And on Monday in Gainesville, Florida, it did.
Kiely unleashed an impressive turn of pace to win the over-80s 800m at the World Masters Indoor Championships. His winning time? Suffice to say it was not the 1:45 Mark English ran to win a European Indoor medal or the 2:11 Kate O’Connor managed in her pentathlon. But then Kiely is around half a century their senior.
He hit the line in 3:09.35, which is on pace for a sub-four-minute kilometre. What’s more, Kiely was nowhere near his limit, having only kicked with half a lap to run, putting four seconds into his chief rival in the final 100m.
The Blarney native went into it with few expectations, though he knew the 800m was the strongest of his three events. This was his first season in the M80 category, having hit that milestone last month. These days, things are creaking that used to not creak.
He won a national masters’ cross country title earlier this year but pulled his hamstring soon after returning to the track. That issue lingered into the national masters’ indoors in Athlone, where he tweaked it again in the 800m.
“I did hardly any training for the last fortnight,” he says.
Kiely typically trains three to four days a week, doing some of it with Mallow AC, where he’s “always encouraging” other senior runners to race on the track but few will ever take him up on it.
He does “no strength exercises whatsoever” but did a bit of yoga in recent times, while he’s also a fan of hill training. As race day approaches, he’ll do short repetitions on his own, sessions like 18 x 50 metres to get the legs firing for the 800m. “They say don’t go too far and you won’t get hurt.”
It's gold for Ireland at the World Masters Championships 🇮🇪
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) March 24, 2025
Michael Kiely wins the M80 800m title with 3:09.35 in Florida 🏃♂️ pic.twitter.com/26wMFNlNAQ
His diet is nothing fancy, with Kiely – a celiac – starting every day with six brazil nuts, a banana, two small slices of gluten-free toast and a couple of slices of cheese.
“I don’t bother with fried stuff,” he says. “I don’t eat a big amount; I’m about eight stone, eight (pounds) and I usually lose weight coming up to championships. I run better with less weight to carry.”
In Monday's eight-man final, Kiely had a cautious start, coasting in sixth place through halfway. “There was one guy who, every time I tried to pass him, he moved into my lane,” says Kiely, who shrugged that off and moved up to second as they headed into the final lap. He stayed in the slipstream of USA’s Robert O’Rourke until the last turn and then realised the American “didn’t have a kick finish at all”, with Kiely surging past to take victory – Ireland also securing golds through Eileen Kenny in the W75 cross country, Joe Gough in the M70 800m and the M50 cross country team.
And he’s not done yet. Kiely will race the 400m and 1500m on Saturday and reckons his best chance is in the longer event. “With a bit of luck I might scrape into the first three,” he says.
Kiely only took up running at the age of 36, focusing on marathons in those early years. “My best was about 2:43 – I was never any good at it,” he says. He won world masters titles over 800m and 1500m before stepping away from racing for 15 years, focusing on his career. But he later returned, choosing to focus on track and cross country and avoiding the roads following his hip replacement.
His daughter, Mary, is with him this week in Florida. “My manager,” he laughs. “She does entries, books my flights – anything and everything. Without her, I wouldn’t be here. I’m not good at computers, and I won’t be learning now.”
He’s long bemoaned the lack of track facilities in north Cork and will believe the talk about one in Mallow only when he sees it. “We’re living in hope, and we’ll die in despair,” he laughs.
At an age when many choose a more comfortable life, what keeps him running? “The number one thing is you maintain your health better,” he says. “A lot of my friends aren’t around anymore, but that’s ahead of all of us.” He has no plans to hang up his running shoes, or indeed his racing spikes, anytime soon.
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