RUNNERS turned out in force to celebrate a Weymouth athlete’s 50th year of training young people.

Pete Clarke, 71, estimates he has taken as many as 7,200 youngsters beach running in the last half decade - and he shows no signs of slowing down.

Members of the Weymouth St Pauls Harriers attended a run on Weymouth beach to mark the start of the retired teacher’s 50th year of training.

Pete moved to Weymouth in 1966 to work at Weymouth Grammar School. Later on in his career he was a teacher at Budmouth College.

Since retiring he has taken up decathlons, winning his age group in a competition in the Netherlands in June. He also continues to run marathons, although admitting: “I’m perhaps not as fast as I used to be.”

“I’m lucky enough to have coached a few people who went on to compete internationally,” he said.

“That’s been a real career highlight for me. I also organised the national schools cross country games in 1996.

“It happened simply because at that time I was looking after the Dorset team, but we had 2,000 runners and 2,000 parents.

“It was really good.”

Pete stresses the importance of children having a good tutor when it comes to sport - and he has had a few himself.

“It was a teacher at my college who got me into cross country, and when I moved to Weymouth it seemed natural to take advantage of the beach and take some of the pupils down there.”

He is hopeful that young people are beginning to do more sport.

He said: “I train with kids from about age 11 up to about 16, and I try to make it fun “I might have trouble doing another 50 years, but we will get started and see how we go.”