The European Youth Championships might be recognised for it’s high-quality of youthful table tennis players, but it was an older one who stole some of the limelight with his incredible achievement to reach the event in Austria.
Despite having a bad hip and a non-special bike, 73-year-old Weald Club coach Martin Chinn, from Bexhill, set off on Saturday evening 30th June to cycle to the Championships.
Crossing from Dover to Calais, his intention was to cycle all the way, but although he cycled over 500 of nearly 800 miles, he had to resort to taking a train part of the way.
The intrepid Chinn said: “The main problem was that I kept on losing my way and a lot of the roads, particularly in Germany would not allow cyclists. It was also tough in parts, mainly through the Ardennes, when I got tired constantly cycling uphill for 40 minutes with only four minutes rest going downhill before cycling uphill again!”
However, he disputed that he had done anything special: “Don’t make too much of it! I met hundreds of other cyclists. The Germans do it all the time! My hip has caused me more pain standing around watching play in the sports hall.”