At 91, Blair has deified the odds to become a triple world champion at the largest indoor athletics event.
He won three gold medals in the M90 grade in javelin (17.34m), shot put (6.72m) and discuss (16.18m) at the recent World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland, late last month.
Blair backed those medals up with two silvers in the weight throw (8.33m) and hammer throw (18.92m).
It was the seventh world masters event he had attended, bringing his international medal totally to a whopping seven golds, 12 silvers and six bronze.
But it was by far Blair’s biggest event yet, with more than 4200 from athletes across the world competing.
He was chuffed his results helped New Zealand finish 29th out of 88th countries.
"Very pleased with [my results] actually, because they’re all best performers for the season, so that was even better still," Blair said.
"I think the fact that even though you’re getting older, you can do the same as you did last season.
"I keep telling masters athletes, you don’t have to improve, because as you’re getting older, your performances go down.
"So if you actually perform and do the same as you did the previous season, you’ve actually improved.
"That’s what I was aiming at, and I actually did improve on some of my performances during the summer season, so that was worthwhile."
Despite being an indoor championships, the javelin, discuss and hammer throw were held outdoors in fresh snow from the night prior.
Like most athletes, Blair, who lives in Silverstream, Wellington, but trains in Dunedin, dived into the world of athletics while at primary school.
But it took a back seat for his first loves, cricket and football.
He was a national football representative in 1956, won a Chatham Cup title with Stop Out (Wellington) the same year, and when he found he could throw a cricket ball easily, he discovered it gave him a pretty handy javelin technique, too.
"I tried to mix both and it wasn’t always possible."
He never fully gave up athletics, helping run Athletics New Zealand programmes for children over the years and coaching where he could — and still does.
When he travels to Dunedin, he stops at Greymouth, where he lived for six years, helping coach the local club, and while he competes in Dunedin, he helps coach at East Otago High School.
He joined the world masters events in 2008 in France, where he won bronze in the high jump at an outdoor championship, and previously served as the vice-president of world masters athletics when he was not competing.
Nowadays, Blair trained "lightly" throughout the week, he laughed.
"Once upon a time you used to train four days a week, competed on Saturday, you recovered on Sunday and then you got back in — Friday was the only night you had off."
He was delighted to still be medalling on the world stage but it begs the question — what’s next?
"I thought this may be my last masters world event, but anyhow, time will tell."
There were six 90-year-olds and a 95-year-old competing at the most recent event, so as Blair says himself — "there’s hope yet".
