NSW claim eight early medals at World Masters Championships

7 July 2022

NSW claim eight early medals at World Masters Championships

After six days of competition at the World Masters Athletics Championships, NSW athletes have claimed eight medals. The Championships, being held in Tampere Finland, is a 10-day competition running from June 29 to July 10. Australia was sitting 10th on the medal table with 6 gold, 11 silver and 8 bronze medals. Host nation Finland lead the table, followed by Germany and the USA.

Lenore Lambert (MWA) has led the NSW charge with two medals. In her pet event the 300m hurdles (50 years), she coasted through the heat in a time of 49.47, six seconds ahead of second. In the other heat was the emerging threat, Spain’s Maite Marzo Gomez who laid down the gauntlet running 47.55. In the final, Lenore lifted to run 47.56 and battle all the way to the line with Gomez, who snuck home ahead to take the gold with a time of 47.27.

Lenore may have been a little nervous ahead of her high jump as in her last competition at the Australian Championships she no heighted at the opening mark of 1.42m. In Tampere this week, she opened comfortably with a first up clearance at 1.36m. She went on the clear 1.43m on her first attempt, finishing with the bronze medal at that height.

Former NSW open 400m champion, Janelle Delaney (MWA), had to negotiate three rounds in the 200m (50 years). Arriving at the championships, on seed times just 0.01 seconds separated Janelle and USA’s to Emmanuelle McGowan. She opened with a tremendous heat time of 26.61, then clocked 27.20 in the semi-final. In the final the American got the upper hand, taking the gold in 26.36, with Janelle a tremendous second in 26.81. In third was Janelle’s teammate WA’s Mandy Mason with 27.02.

In the 75 years, NSW throwing great, Mary Thomas (IBS) claimed silver in the hammer throw with her first round effort of 28.30m, finishing just behind local Kirsti Viitanen from Finland. Mary’s distance was an improvement on her NSW winning mark of 28.24m. In her pet event, the javelin Mary was 7th with 15.47m. It was no surprise Finland, the home of world javelin throwing, dominated the event with four in the top-5. Mary’s other results were: 5th discus 20.32m, 7th shot 7.68m abd 9th weight throw 7.01m.

Other NSW medalists:

bronze Ron Schwebel (SSR) 70y teams Cross Country

Bronze Nick Fuller (MWA) 40y 400m hurdles 57.36

Bronze Robyn Suttor (MTP) 60y 300m Hurdles 68.16

Bronze Philippa Wight (MWA) 55y Pole Vault 2.30m

A full list of NSW results has been compiled by Ryan Dowling https://sites.google.com/nswmastersathletics.org.au/2022-nswma-reps-at-wma-tampere/results

Thanks Ryan for the great job.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Ahead of the opening ceremony, Jill Taylor and Mary Thomas with flag bearer WA’s Julie Brims