NEWS

Masters of Success

Matthew Millington

The 2022 World Masters Athletics Championships were held from the 29th of June to the 10th of July in Tampere, Finland, the land of a thousand lakes, or so I’m told, I haven’t actually counted them all myself, so we’ll have to take Google’s word for it. But we’re not interested in the water, we’re interested in the track and the red and black. Our masters athletes represented the club and the country with such tenacity, passion and spirit that we can all admire and be proud of. Our athletes claimed an impressive tally of four golds, two silvers and a bronze on the world stage along with a pair of Western Australian records and one Australian record.

Mel Foster was our most successful athlete of the championship medalling in all three of her events. She won silver in the W40 triple jump, jumping a record breaking 12.04m to cement her name in the record books as the new Australian and Western Australian record holder. Mel earned another silver in the W40 long jump with yet another ground breaking leap of 5.73m to claim the Western Australian record. Mel’s bronze medal came in the W40 heptathlon where she scored 3716 points. Congratulations Mel on your three trips to the podium.

Photo by Fiona Foster

Our two men, Mark Harper and Mark Giglio each won a gold medal as part of the same team in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. In the M45 4x100m relay, Team Australia ran a time of 45.04 to take the top step of the podium and in the M45 4x400m relay, Team Australia rocketed in with a time of 3:40.92, which they shared in a dead heat with Team USA. Four golds in two relays, congratulation fellas, I don’t think I could replicate that level of success playing Athens 2004 on my PlayStation2. Our two Marks also competed in the individual 100m and 200m. In the 100m, they both made the semis and both made the final of the 200m where Harper finished fifth in a time of 23.62 and Giglio finished a touch behind in sixth running 23.99.

Well done to our three Athletics Essendon athletes and we all wish you the best of luck in preparation of hopefully competing again at the 2024 World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.

FULL RESULTS:

Melissa Foster:

W40 Triple Jump: 12.04m (2nd)

Australian and Western Australian record

W40 Long Jump: 5.73m (2nd)

Western Australian record

W40 Heptathlon: 3716 points (3rd)

80m Hurdles – 18.95 (132pts)

High Jump – 1.41m (685pts)

Shot Put – 8.16m (468pts)

200m – 28.30 (759pts)

Long Jump – 5.44 (861pts)

Javelin – 27.14 (498pts)

800m – 3:14.84 (313pts)

Mark Harper:
100m Heats: 11.55
100m Semi Final: 11.57 (9th)

200m heat 23.41
200m semi 23.32 
200m final
23.62 (5th)

Mark Giglio:
100m Heats: 11.95
100m Semi Final: 11.92 (16th)

200m Heats: 23.83 

200m Semi Final: 24.00

200m Final: 23.99 (6th)

M45 Relays
4x100m Australia: 45.04 (1st)
1. Mark Harper 2. Brett Gilligan 3. Mark Giglio 4. Brad Krawczyk

4x400m Australia: 3:40.92 (1st)
1. Andrew Wilcox 2. Mark Harper 3. Mark Giglio 4. Christopher Brack