Doncaster venue’s ‘Golden Girls’ carried the team at the 2011 Victorian Masters’ Athletics Championships held at Rieschiecks Reserve, Doncaster during the first weekend in April.
Golden Girls from Doncaster venue (L to R) Margaret Prowse (90), June Reeves (65), Margaret Tweedie (56) and Bev Learmont (62) after winning their age divisions of the 60 metres sprint at the VMA Championships. Between them they won 21 medals, 16 of them gold
Tweedie was the star performer, going through six events unbeaten, while Learmont won four gold medals and four silvers.
Prowse established four records in the Women’s 90-94 age-group, winning over 60, 100, 200 and 400 metres.
Reeves, who has an illustrious record as a world class sprinter, won over 60 and 200 metres but was narrowly beaten in her 100 metres by former world champion Anne Stobaus, from Aberfeldie.
One division of the Women’s 60 metres event was run as a combined age-group event for all competitors 50 and over and produced a result probably unprecedented in Victorian Masters’ Athletics history when all four of the sprinters mentioned won gold medals in their individual age-groups. Doncaster did not have a representative in the other age-group involved, for Women 50-54.
Doncaster again dominated the Championships with 62 medals – 28 gold, 22 silver and 12 bronze and had 24 individual medalists. It was the fourth successive year the venue has topped the medal tally.
Newcomers Karen Carah (W40-44 high jump) and David O’Connor (M40-44 5000m) both won gold medals, with Carah also collecting two silvers and a bronze.
Phil Rosevear (M60-64) and Greg Champion (M55-59) did best of the men on the track, taking two golds and two minor medals each, while in the field events Peter Young (M60-64) collected two gold medals and three silvers.
David McConnell (M55-59) won his 400 metre hurdles and took three minor medals and Tom Leong (M65-69) was also a multiple medalist with gold in the high jump and bronze in the long jump.
Other Doncaster athletes who won gold were Jim Poulter (M65-69 long jump) and Richard Trembath, who marked his comeback to Championship racing after a hip replacement by taking the 800 metres in the 65-69 age division two years after winning the same event in 2009.
Doncaster’s top three performances on an age-graded percentage basis were all in 60 metre events, with Phil Rosevear scoring 92.51% and Marg Tweedie 90.43% in winning their divisions, while Ken Bruce returned an outstanding beaten run with 91.32% in taking silver behind Wayne Bingham in the M55-59 section.