Golden finish for NSW athletes at World Masters Championships

11 July 2022

Golden finish for NSW athletes at World Masters Championships

NSW waited until day nine for their first gold medal which coincided with a medal rush from the NSW athletes in the closing days of the World Masters Athletics Championships being held in Tampere Finland.

Janelle Delaney was the star for NSW, claiming three gold medals on the last three days, including a world record and two Australian records. Following on from her 200m silver earlier in the program, Janelle won the 50 years 400m in style in 58.41 seconds, nearly two seconds ahead of the 200m winner USA’s Emmanuelle McGowan, with third a further two seconds back. 
“Today was what the last five years of perseverance in the gym, track, rehab (many times), freezing harbour pool during Covid lockdown has been all for,” she wrote.
“Definitely not possible without so many people’s support and encouragement - a huge thank you.”

But Janelle was not finished. The next day she joined NSW’s Lenore Lambert and QLD's Julie Brims and WA's Mandy Mason to win the 45 years 4x100m relay in a world record time of 50.70, defeating Finland and Spain.
“What an absolute honour to be a part of such a special moment” wrote Janelle.

On the final day, Janelle combined again with NSW’s Lenore Lambert and WA’s Mandy Mason and Sharon Davis to win the 45 years 4x400m relay in an Australian record time of 4:09.62.

Lenore Lambert was also enjoying a special championship too. In addition to her two relay gold and a world record, she won silvers in her two hurdle events (80m and 300m), silver in the heptathlon, with a NSW record score of 5248 points, and bronze in the high jump - for a six medal haul performance.

David Chantrill finished on the podium in the 80 years 400m, after just missing the medals in the 200m. David clocked 76.92 seconds, with France’s Jean-Louis Esnault taking the win.

Sally Stagles won bronze in the 80m hurdles in a slick time of 13.84 seconds behind Germany’s Olga Becker who took gold in 12.82 seconds.

NSW’s Philippa Wright also won gold, as a member of the 55 years 4x400m relay which set an Australian record clocking 4:35.16. They shaved 2.69 seconds off the previous mark set in Perth in 2016. It was a big championship for Philippa who also won bronze in the pole vault with a NSW record of 2.30m. She was also 4th in the 300m hurdles, 5th 80m hurdles, 7th 400m and 11th 100m.

Australia finished nineth on the medal tally with an amazing haul of 19 gold, 19 silver, 18 bronze for a total of 56 medals. Topping the table were hosts Finland, ahead of Germany, Great Britain and the USA.

Thanks to Ryan Dowling, a full list of results are available here:
https://sites.google.com/nswmastersathletics.org.au/2022-nswma-reps-at-wma-tampere/results

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Australian women’s 4x100m relay team (courtesy of Jill Taylor)