For a man who says he’s made more comebacks than Frank Sinatra are we to believe that Olympian Paul Nihill is to finally retire after 65 years?

The 73-year-old Medway athlete, who has represented Great Britain in four successive Games, has said he is finally calling it a day.

His first athletic event was as a schoolboy in Croydon where he grew up in 1948, when the post-war Games were held in the capital.

And he was still competing in races up and down the county at the time of the 2012 Games.

Paul started running at school when he was eight and quickly progressed to local running clubs.

In 1959, hobbling around after breaking his kneecap, he decided to try out race walking.

“In those days there was no physio so you just kept on running through the pain,” said Paul.

"I fully intended to go back to running, but I realised I was good at race walking.

“When I was first told about my knee injury, I thought that’s it, I’m going to quit athletics for good.

"So in some ways my decision to try out race walking was fate.”

Read the full interview in tomorrow's Medway Messenger.