Turning Old Into Gold A World Track Star At 87

This Active Octogenarian Is The Master Of Her Own Destiny.

- Steve Landells​​​​​​​

Supergran Clasina van der Veeken may have only won her first athletics medal 14 years ago, but the remarkable octogenarian has more than made up for lost time.

Since that maiden podium appearance, the Whangarei-based masters athlete has won dozens of medals domestically and internationally, and at the age of 87 is continuing to defy the sands of time with her awe-inspiring achievements.

Born and raised on a farm in the Netherlands, close to the border with Belgium, she recalls an “active” upbringing milking cows and cycling.

Arriving in Eketahuna in 1959, aged 28, to live on a farm with her then husband, Clasina later moved north to a farm in Tangiteroria in the ’70s “because the weather was better”. Despite Clasina’s energetic lifestyle, it wasn’t until she retired from farming to live in Whangarei 20 years ago that her sporting journey began – and then only by chance.

A keen recreational cyclist, she took a dive over her handlebars after stopping abruptly for a car and broke her neck. Following the accident, Clasina switched to competitive walking, finishing a four-day event in her native Netherlands and walking the Whangarei Marathon.

However, it wasn’t until she was 73, when a local masters athlete approached Clasina to attend the Northland Masters Games, that her latent athletics career really hit its stride.