Los Gatan Ed Burke Wins Gold at World Masters Games in Torino, Italy

Los Gatos resident Edward A. Burke, 73, has done it again!

This time, he won gold in three events against men from around the world in his age group during the World Masters Games in Torino, Italy at the beginning of August.

His fellow competitors, men between the ages of 70 and 75, came from Poland, Japan, Hungary, Germany, and other parts of the world and have formed great friendships over the years, according to proud daughter Claire Whitehead.

Burke competed and won the hammer throw, the weight throw and the weight pentathlon, five events all throwing hammer, javelin, shot, discus and weight, Whitehead explained.

"It is quite a challenge and takes all day to complete," she said. "The event was a close one for the pentathlon. They didn't know the winner until the end of the last event. Made for quite a suspenseful time."

This past May, Burke capped an athletics career spanning six decades and three Olympic Games separated by 20 years, by setting an American and world-indoor record in the men’s 70-74-year-old 35 pound, "superweight" throw to open the 2013 USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships at Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, MD.

Burke joined the USA Olympic team in 1984 at age 44 and competed in the hammer throw. He was selected to be the USA team flag bearer at the games in Los Angeles.

Burke was the first ever U.S. Olympian to participate in Olympic Games 20 years apart, after finishing seventh place in the 1964 games in Tokyo.

He also won the 1968 USA Olympic Trials hammer throw while nursing a shoulder injury and then represented the USA finishing 12th place in the Mexico City Games.