Grinning mischievously, Juanjo Urbizu donned a baseball cap, tucked his T-shirt neatly into his sweatpants and adjusted the straps on his elbow pads before positioning his skateboard on the bowl’s edge, ready for the “drop.”
Urbizu’s attempt at a gnarly trick drew stares, because the athlete is a sight to behold, wheeling around the unassuming skate park in northern Spain having just turned 88.
For the cheerful octogenarian, each skating session begins by carefully clearing the square bowl of pebbles to guarantee a smooth ride.
Photo: Reuters
“My bones are special,” he said with a chuckle, between sips on a post-workout glass of white wine at his favorite bar in Bilbao’s working-class Begona neighborhood. “Though I touch wood.”
In a rapidly aging country, where more than half the population is older than 44, the demographic shift is increasingly becoming a topic of national debate.
However, Spain’s generally warm climate is conducive to outdoor activities and studies have proven the importance of physical exercise in bettering the quality of life and reducing the risk of disease for the elderly.
Urbizu took up skateboarding aged 70, partly because it was cheaper than his beloved snow sports.
He said the sport offers an escape from monotony.
“By breaking the routine, you bring something new to everyday life, and that gives you a sense of rest,” he said.
For people his age considering taking up skateboarding, he advises they do it little by little.
“Falls here are truly bad, much worse than in the snow. Anyone who does something like this should wear full protection,” he said.
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
RSS