18th AUSTRALIAN MASTERS ATHLETICS WINTER THROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS, CANBERRA 2013

The Canberra LOC put on a terrific three day program of high level yet friendly competition for the 54 athletes who turned up for the 18th Winter Championships. Competitors came from almost all states/territories with one, Lesley Dawson, arriving from Japan! The split of 25 women(45%) to 29 men(55%) was heartening. Often at Masters Track and Field meets the split is closer to 70% men/30% women. The weather throughout was fine although strong winds caused some difficulties on each day, particularly for Discus and Javelin events. 400g Javelins are easily knocked off course. The usual tent coverage was provided for athletes and officials, most enjoying ardent conversations about the past, present and future. Some of it was even about athletics. This meet is always a self-help event and the athletes are very helpful in ensuring events flow freely. The designated officials provide a friendly approach to each event which the athletes appreciate. Championship Convenor, Ray Green, commenced proceedings by introducing each athlete in turn to the crowd. Each competitor received a Championship Medal and a personal recording sheet. Additionally Lyn Smith and Jean Thew were awarded their complimentary Tenth Competition T-shirt and laminated Achievement Certificate.

DAY 1: The first day saw the athletes competing in all throwing events, but in an order different from the Throws Pentathlon. Standout performances for the men in Hammer came from Grant Edwards(ACT 50) 50.25m Championship Record(CR) and George Mencik(ACT80) 36.40(CR). Some close Hammer competitions came in M60 – Bob Banens(ACT60) 34.00 to Duncan Macnicol(ACT60) 33.70; M75 - Ken Priestly(Vic75) 36.60 to Ron Simcock(NSW75) 34.68. In the Shot Jamie Muscat(NSW35) 13.69, Grant Edwards 13.87 and Geoff Gee(WA60) 12.85 threw very well. Robert Hanbury-Brown(NSW55) 10.75 and Andrew Atkinson-Howatt(NSW55) 10.00 had the closest competition. Norm Windred(NSW85) put 8.04 for a CR. Some good throws in the Discus came from Jamie Muscat 40.16, Grant Edwards 42.47, Bob Banens 38.06, Ray Green(ACT65) 37.66 and Norm Windred 19.81(CR). While the wind played havoc with the Javelin there were nevertheless some keen contests. Jamie Muscat 35.45 beat Rodney Watson(NSW35) 35. 28; and Robert H-B 40.89 beat Andrew A-H 40.37. The outstanding throw on Day 1 for the men came from George Mencik in the Weight Throw with an Australian Record(AR) 16.92. Norm Windred grabbed a share of the limelight with an 11.34CR Weight Throw. That was Norm’s third CR of the day! Grant Edwards had a very good 17.71 and Geoff Gee made 16.58. Graeme Rose’s(Vic65) 15.42 was a good result.

The women on Day1 had some close tussles and some excellent results. In the Hammer Althea Mackie(Qld40) with 40.49 was very good. Jayne Hardy’s(ACT50) 47.94 was outstanding. Sharon Gibbins’(ACT55) 39.62 was too good for current World Masters Games titleholder Jill Taylor’s (NSW55) 39.40. Jan Banens’(ACT70) 31.83 was a fine throw. In the Shot Jayne Hardy was sound with 10.34, just ahead of Kim Debrot(NSW55) 9.52. Jill Taylor won the Shot with 9.11 from June Lowe(NSW55) 8.97. Joyce Schmidt’s(NSW75) 7.00 was a nice effort. Sharon Gibbins 28.72 Discus was a CR, while Lyn Smith(NSW40) 31.21 and Jayne Hardy 32.67 recorded some good throws. Lyn Smith 30.79 and Jayne Hardy 31.63 were again to the fore in the Javelin, while June Lowe 21.11 won her event from Jill Taylor 19.38. In the Weight Throw Althea Mackie was again good with 12.38, while Jayne Hardy threw very well for 14. 30. Sharon Gibbins 11.58 again had the wood on Jill Taylor 11.04. Jan Banens 11.81CR was very good ahead of RayleaRudov’s 10.42.

DAY 2: The second day of competition is for the Throws Pentathlon. There was almost a 50/50 split in the numbers of men and women contesting the event. In the first contest, the Hammer, for the men Grant Edwards 49.30 for 817 points, Ron Simcock 35.01 for 850 points, George Mencik 34.77 for 947 pointswere outstanding. Graeme Rose 38.33 for 779 points Geoff Gee 40.32 for 722 points and Norm Windred 23.54CR for 737 points were very good. The closest contest was between Robert H-B32.02 for 546 points and Andrew A-H 32.33 for 553 points. In the second contest, the Shot, Jamie Muscat 13.07 for 701 points, Grant Edwards 13.79 for 861 points, Geoff Gee 12.98 a new CR for 864 points, Ron Simcock 10.39 for 812 points and George Mencik 9.70 for 820 points, were dominant. Again the contest of the round was between RHB 10.59 for 695 points and AAH 9.52 for 612 points. In the Discus Ray Green took the honours with 36.95 for 726 points, while Jamie Muscat 40.74 for 691 points, Grant Edwards 40.06 for 683 points and AAH 35.47 for 652 points scored well. Again AAH and RHB fought it out 35.47 to 34.67. The Javelin is often a difficult event for many throwers and a good Javelin thrower can pick up valuable points on competitors. AAH was well ahead of the field in distance with 40.20 for 645 points from Graeme Rose 32.19 for 593 points and Norm Windred 20.06CR and 572 points. RHB 37.23 for 586 points and AAH were only 1 point apart going into the final event with AAH leading. The weight throw saw the best individual point score of the day for the men with George Mencik’s 15.81 for 1059 points. Grant Edwards 17.63 for 936 points and Geoff Gee 17.57 for 925 points weren’t far behind. The contest between RHB and AAH was resolved when RHB threw 11.86 for 639 points to AAH 11.45 for 613 points. RHB won by 25 points. George Mencik 3759 points, Norm Windred 3375 points and Warren Jones(NSW30) 2090 points, set CRs. Very good final scores were Ron Simcock 3654 points, Geoff Gee 3594 points and Graeme Rose 3547 points.

In the first of the throws for the women Jayne Hardy was far and away the best point scorer, man or woman, on the day with a Hammer of 48.31 for 1202 points! Other very good scores were Astrid Rose (Vic70) 26.12 for 933 points, RayleaRudov24.73 for 874 points, Althea Mackie 39.39 for 851 points and Joyce Schmidt’s 21.21 for 763 points. In the Shot Put Jayne Hardy again dominated with 10.53 and 745 points followed by Joyce Schmidt 7.07 for 724 points. RayleaRudov 6.45 scored 659 points with Christine Shaw(NSW50) getting 9.37 for 649 points and Kim Debrot 9.29 for 642 points. It was Jayne’s day again in the Discus with 32.29 for 701 points. Kate Clarke(NSW60) on 21.58 got 547 points and Lyn Smith the best of the rest with 30.43 for 537 points. Jayne managed it again in the Javelin 32.35 for 716 points followed by Tatiana Sudarikova 33.49 and 637 points. Lyn Smith got 29.43 for 548 points and Christine Shaw 25.42 for 541 points. To end an absolute dominant display Jayne tossed the Weight 14.01 for 899points followed by Althea Mackie 12.67 for 802 points, RayleaRudov 10.13 and 792 points, Lisa Mumberson 9.90 for 666 points, Astrid Rose 8.55 for 649 points and Lyn Smith 10.54 for 645 points. Jayne’s fine effort in totalling 4263 for a new CR augers well for her chances at the WMA T&F Championships in Brazil which are only 10 days away (at time of writing). Althea Mackie 2970 points, Lyn smith 2880 points and Tatiana Sudarikova 2802 points had quite a battle for the honours in their age group as did RayleaRudov 3283 points and Astrid Rose 3180 points in their age group. As usual a number of athletes and partners attended the BBQ at Urambi. It was a terrific evening with Karen Jones the recipient of the major door prize, a leather hat donated by Jayne Hardy.

DAY 3: The final day of competition is always a major challenge. Not only are the athletes confronted by the day’s events – Heavy Weight Pentathlon and the 56lb and 100lb Weight Throw they must confront their tired bodies, which, if they competed in all events on the first two days, has already been subjected to the stress of 45 competition throws plus numerous warm up throws! The first event of the day is the Heavy Weight Pentathlon in which the athletes throw two Heavy Weights lighter than the standard Weight for their age, their age standard Weight and two Heavy Weights heavier than their standard Weight in ascending order of mass. This event was created by the author with the current tables supplied by Stuart Reid, who passed away recently. In the men’s event a number of athletes scored over 1000 points in various Weight categories. Ken Priestly 20.00 in the 8.8lb gained 1074 while in the same age group Ron Simcock was pressing hard with 19.94 for 1041 points. Ron got the better of Ken in the 12lb Weight 17.41 for 1091 points to 15.97 for 1008. Ken regained the upper hand in the 20lb Weight 11.78 for 1052 points to Ron’s 11.41 for 1015. In the final Weight category of 25lb Ken again was in front with 9.87 for 1063 points to Ron’s 9.77 and 1050 points. At the end of this exciting contest Ken had won with a new CR of 5186 points to Ron’s 5134 points. On his way to a new CR of 4864 points Grant Edwards set a new CR of 17.74 for his standard Weight of 25lb gaining 1004 points, also getting 1001 points for 14.58 35lb and 1069 points for 11.30 45lb. Graeme Rose had a fine competition averaging 900 points per event for a very good total of 4524. For the women the outstanding athletes were Althea Mackie who scored 4131 points and Jayne Hardy with a CR 4716 points which included a 20lb 12.01 for 1058 points. Jayne’s average was just on 950 points per event. Lisa Mumberson was quietly happy with her 3468 total while Karen Jones (NSW60) 1711 points and Judy Brown(NSW60) 1448 had the closest contest of the day.

Grant Edwards was the outstanding male athlete in the 56lb Weight with a 9.39CR and a 100lb Weight throw of 4.00 for another CR. Other good throws came from Jamie Muscat 8.41, Peter Reed(ACT50) 7.47 56lb, Geoff Gee 5.19 56lb, John Reynolds(ACT65) 4.76 56lb and Noel Donohue(NSW70) 4.02 56lb. For the women Althea Mackie’s “first female to 5.00m” 56lb Australian record was outstanding. Jayne Hardy set a new AR in her age group with 4.40 56lb, an excellent throw and a CR of 2.02 in 100lb. Kellie Watson(NSW40) was magnificent in the 56 lb with 3.12 and the 100lb with 1.10 as she threw with only one arm having broken it recently and competed with it covered in plaster. She did throw with her other “wrong” arm. Lisa Mumberson’s 56lb 3.57 was a good effort.

With the Championships over for another year Ray Green thanked all the officials, all the competitors and his LOC – Jayne Hardy, Barbara Burton, RayleaRudov and Sharon Gibbins – for the outstanding work they had contributed in making the event a huge success; assembling/dissembling tents, laying sector tapes, measuring competition throws, making sandwiches, packing the equipment into the shed etc etc. I am always thankful that there are such wonderful people on hand to assist. Ray announced that it was likely the Championships would be held at a new ground in 2014, Campbell. This will be confirmed in 2014. The Champion athletes for 2013 were then announced. Grant Edwards won the Ray Green Male Thrower Award for outstanding results in many events including five Championship records. Jayne Hardy won the Len Childs Female Thrower Award for outstanding results in many events including an Australian Record and two Championship records.

Ray Green

Convenor

October 9, 2013