'Six of the best' and more for our athlete

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 680, 1 April 1997, Page 5

'Six of the best' and more for our athlete

'Six of the best' for Waimarino athlete Jill Evans at the Manawatu Wanganui Centre Veteran Athletics recently was followed by a first in the weight pentathlon at the New Zealand Veteran Athletics Championships in Dunedin in March. What Jill describes as 'six of the best' was a string of first places in her age bracket (45+) at the centre champs, which also included a number of personal bests. At Wanganui she won the shotput (9.26 metres, a personal best), the discus (27.22m, PB), the javelin (26.14m), hammer throw (20.50m, PB), long jump (3.05m) and high jump (1.15m). At the national champs, she was placed first in the shotput, discus, javelin and high jump; second in the long jump and triple jump; and third in the hammer throw. There, she beat her own personal best in the hammer throw with 21.54m. But she also set the championship record for the javelin with a throw of 27.16, just

50cm off the New Zealand veteran' s record. To top it off, she took first place in the weight pentathlon — - an event scored on points that includes shotput, discus, javelin, hammer and weight throw. Jill's return to athletics as a veteran follows the New Zealand Masters Games in Wanganui two years ago, which she says was a lot of fun. Still an active hockey player, her hockey team mates told her about the veterans, which she said she didn't know existed. Jill says she really enjoyed athletics as a teenager, competing for about six years in what was then the West Coast North Island region, holding the javelin record for several years. She said there was no way that she would have thought back then that she could still be enjoying athletics in her 40's. The veterans athletics championships saw about 200 people competing, in fiveyear age groups up to 80 years old.