UHI Moray mature student Katja Blunden, a world athletics champion for Finland, wants to inspire middle-aged women
It’s never too late to take up sport - just ask mature student Katja Blunden who’s become a world athletics champ at the age of 46.
The UHI Moray scholar loved running in her youth but a lack of opportunities in her home town in Finland could have ended her athletics career there.
Instead, she returned to the sport in her mid-20s, competed in her national championships and continued running when she moved to the UK.
Katja married an RAF serviceman and gave birth to their daughter, before winning two silver medals in the World Masters Athletics Championships in Turkey just months after she had her baby at 35.
A move to Lossiemouth five years ago didn’t halt Katja’s sporting aspirations as she again made the World Masters podium in 2022, then reached her pinnacle when she was crowned world champion in her age group for 800 metres last year in Sweden, smashing the championship and Scandinavian record.
Last month the inspirational Finn competed against some of the country’s best young athletes at the Scottish Student Sport National Outdoor Athletics Championships, and beat them all to the 800 metres gold medal as well as a 1500 metres silver for UHI Moray.
“I said to some of the competitors that I could easily be their mother,” she said. “Most of them were in their fairly early 20s and it would have been easy for me to be petrified going up against athletes that age.
“But I managed to beat most of them, apart from the one girl who beat me narrowly in the 1500 metres.”
Katja only took up athletics seriously at the age of 25, and has maintained her passion for the sport while combining her running with bringing up family, work and studies.
She hopes her story can inspire women of a similar age to be fit, active and healthy, possibly by taking up sport regardless of how old they are.
“Middle-aged women might think they can’t do sport, they might be going through the menopause and think they can’t do this and that,” she said.
“So if I can inspire women to believe in themselves and inspire them to exercise or do something like that, I'm more than happy to.
“There is no reason why women my age and older shouldn't stay active and even compete in sports.
“I've been an athlete for over 20 years. I wasn't competing when I was young but I’ve still been doing this for a long time, and it's never too late.”
Not many athletes will achieve the status of world champion, but Katja’s dream came true in Gothenburg last August when she reached the top of the podium.
The World Masters Championships are held every two years for athletes aged 35 and over, and is split into age groups across every five year bracket.
Katja’s husband Matt, who she met while based in England, is also a keen runner who won the Limassol Marathon when the family was based in Cyprus through Matt’s job as a serviceman.
Their daughter Henriikka, now aged 11, has inherited her parents’ athletics ability. The Gordonstoun pupil won her race at the Moray schools cross country championships at Gordon Castle this year, and recently won a silver medal at the Scottish schools cross country championships.
Henriikka was only a baby when her mother first competed at world level for Finland - and enjoyed medal success right away.
“I did the World Masters in Turkey (Izmir), and I got two silver medals there,” Katja recalled. “I think that was under six months after giving birth to Henriikka.
“I was still running through my pregnancy though obviously not training at the same kind of level I normally would.
“Over the years I've suffered with some sinus issues but the motivation to compete has always been there, maybe some years when it's been more low profile. The next time I competed (in the World Masters) wasn't until 2022 in Tampere, where I got the bronze medal in the 1500 metres and the bronze medal in the 4x400 metres relay as well.”
A tough 2024 with her sinus problems made preparation for the worlds in Sweden problematic, but Katja overcame the odds to produce the performance of her life.
Winning the 800m in a championship record time of 2.15.78, she said: “I surprised myself when I did that, because last year was far from perfect. I was on antibiotics on three occasions in the spring, and I was not doing much in April before I finally started feeling healthy again.
“To manage that, I was pretty happy with myself. I ran the fastest time in the World Masters in that category that has been ever run. And it's also a Finnish national record.
“So I hold, currently hold 800 and 1500 metre age records in Finland, both indoors and outdoors.”
She also won silver at the Scottish Senior Indoor Championships at 800 metres this year, perhaps the first athlete from the Moray Road Runners club she trains with to make the podium at national level.
Katja combined her athletics with working as an interpreter for 20 years, before the company she worked for went out of business. She decided to enrol at UHI Moray for a Sport and Fitness degree - she’s now in her second year.
The running star believes her studies have helped to take her athletics to a new level.
“Doing sports psychology has really made me think, and studying it has made me so much more aware of how I do it, and how it affects me, and how I can do it better and benefit from it. It’s definitely given me a new perspective, and a more analytical point of view.”
But her time at UHI Moray will soon some to an end, as her husband is set to take up a military posting in Italy.
Their daughter will continue her Gordonstoun education, meaning that her parents will maintain their Moray connection on visits.
And the Moray area has had such a positive effect, it’s unlikely to be the final chapter in the Blunden family’s Scottish adventure.
And so my daughter, or our daughter, she's in Gordonstoun and she's going to stay as a boarder there. So we'll still be like, very tightly connected back here.
“We are seriously considering that once Matt is out of RAF, we would settle in Moray because we like it so much,” she added.
While Italy is set to be their home for the next three years, the move won’t hamper Katja’s sporting ambitions and she plans to compete in the European Masters Championships in Madeira, Portugal in October.
