He took up running after 40 and is now 100 km masters world champion: the story of the Zurgena athlete

A hundred kilometres, twenty laps of a circuit and up to 34 degrees: this is how Juan Antonio Ramos won the gold he had been chasing for years. On Sunday 20 September, the Zurgena athlete was crowned 100-kilometre world champion in the masters category for 55 to 59-year-olds (M55), at the IAU and WMA World Championships held in Ames (A Coruña). He stopped the clock at 7 hours, 35 minutes and 18 seconds, according to the official results.

A gold that had eluded him

It was not just another medal. According to the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA), his medal in Ames is his fourth at a World Championships, with medals in three different categories, and his first gold. He explained it himself in La Voz de Almería: he came into it “after three silvers” and, when the championships were awarded to Spain, he asked himself “why not go for the gold that has been so elusive for me”.

He also arrived with the national title. In March, at the Spanish Championships in Málaga, he had been, in his words, “5th overall, 1st masters 55 and overall Spanish champion with my team, A.D.Sprint”, and before the World Championships the RFEA presented him as “Spanish record holder in his category and Spanish champion in 2026”.

In Ames he left no doubt. He won with more than fourteen minutes to spare over Bartolomé Fiol, also Spanish, who took silver (7:49:54); bronze went to Austria’s Niklas Kroehn (8:21:47). And it was not an easy race: of the eleven runners in his category, five did not make it to the finish, according to the official results.

A hundred kilometres in the heat

The race started at 8:30, in front of the town hall, on Calle Alcalde Lorenzo in Bertamiráns, and the course meant completing 20 laps of a circuit of about five kilometres. According to La Voz de Almería, temperatures reached 34 degrees and, around kilometre 80, cramp set in: he had to stretch and get help to carry on.

He knows that stretch well. Back in 2022 he told El Independiente that “from kilometre 80 you start to suffer”.

Spain was the largest masters delegation at the championships, with 55 of the 143 registered athletes, who came from 31 countries, and it collected ten podium finishes: six golds, three silvers and one bronze, according to the RFEA.

From occasional futsal to 100 kilometres

Juan Antonio’s story in athletics began late, and it was thanks to his brother. According to El Independiente, until September 2009 he only played futsal now and then. Then his brother gave up smoking and ran a half marathon in Almería. “When he told me his time, I told him that to do that I wouldn’t even bother training”, he recalled. Three months later he was already running 21 kilometres.

He started running after turning 40 and, six years later, without even a coach, he was already Spanish 100-kilometre champion, according to that feature.

The flag of Zurgena

Zurgena does not forget him, nor does he forget Zurgena. In May 2019, his village was already paying tribute to him with the 2nd Carrera Popular Villa de Zurgena “Trofeo Juan Antonio Ramos”, a 7.5-kilometre open race.

And in 2022, at the German race in Ubstadt-Weiher, he broke the seven-hour barrier with 6 hours, 58 minutes and 22 seconds, a Spanish record for his category. El Independiente put it like this: he was “the first Spaniard of his age to achieve it while crossing the finish line raising the flag of his village, Zurgena”.

A chapter comes to a close

After the World Championships, he took stock in La Voz de Almería: “A chapter in my sporting life is closing, one that has been much more rewarding in terms of experience and results than I could ever have imagined, while also putting Zurgena, my village, on the map”.

He went from saying he would not even bother training to climbing to the top of the world podium, and he did it always flying the flag for Zurgena.