Queensland Masters Athletics competitors in 90s defy age barriers at track and field championships
Christiane Dauphinet, 91, runs the 200-metre Oceania Athletics Championships event. (Supplied: Casey Sims, Oceania Athletics)
On a bush athletics track surrounded by cane fields, 96-year-old Maurice Dauphinet tosses a javelin nine metres and the crowd gives him a standing roar.
His spear might have fallen 44 metres short of the longest throw in the competition, but no one really cares.
After all, he does have 66 years on the youngest competitors.
Masters athlete Maurice Dauphinet, 96, competes in discus, shot-put, hammer and javelin. (Supplied: Casey Sims, Oceania Athletics)
Age was no barrier at the Queensland Masters Athletic Championships last week, where for the first time it was held in conjunction with the Oceania Athletics Championships in Mackay, north Queensland.
Maurice was one of 200 competitors, aged 30 years and older, who took part in events from the pole vault to the hammer throw, high jump and steeple chase.
His runner wife Christiane, 91, was another.
They joined a masters athletic club 34 years ago in 1988, and have not looked back.
Bundaberg's Maurice Dauphinet, 96, and wife Christiane, 91, were the oldest competitors present. (Supplied: Casey Sims, Oceania Athletics)
These days running is off the cards for Maurice following a hip operation, but it did not stop him competing in shot-put, discus, javelin and the hammer throw.
The Bundaberg couple were an inspiration to competitors but claimed there was no secret to their long athletic careers, just an active lifestyle that included Sunday morning track and field training, followed by a croissant and the newspaper puzzles.
But the Masters Athletic Championships is about much more than winning medals and breaking records.
For some, it is one of the few times each year they travel to catch up with like-minded people.
Women's 65-70 competitor Gillian Hayden hugs Christiane Dauphinet after a race. (Supplied: Casey Sims, Oceania Athletics)
We're 'just having a good time'
For Gympie participant Karel McClintock, relationships are at the heart of her sport.
"The friendship and the friends you make along the way, just having a good time," she said.
Gympie masters athlete Karel McClintock wins five gold medals at the state championships. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Lamb)
But that does not mean she pulls any punches. She came away with five gold medals over three days after competing in the over 60s hammer throw, shot-put, discus, javelin and weight throw.
McClintock started doing athletics as a master (a class for athletes above the age of 30) in 1997 when her children were at Little Athletics.
"I just sort of got sick of watching them train and I thought, 'No, I'll have a go one day', and that was it,"she said.
Gympie does not have a masters club, so McClintock still trains with the Little Athletics on a Friday night.
From the paddock to the podium
There is not much of an athletics scene in Biloela, where Susan Tucker lives on a cattle property.
Biloela athlete Susan Tucker [centre] with Victorian athlete Heather Lamb [left] and the ACT's Vicki Townsend. (Jessica Lamb, ABC Sunshine Coast)
Once a month, she drives two hours to Rockhampton for training, or she otherwise improvises at home.
"We just go out in the paddock and chuck things," Tucker says.
The strategy worked. Tucker finished the competition with three gold medals, two silver and one bronze.
She said whether you won medals or not, masters athletics was for everyone.
"Get out and give it a go," Tucker said.
Fighting for women's events
Wilma Perkins has not let her 72 years around the sun stop her from flying through the air — literally.
The Brisbane athlete was the oldest pole vaulter in the competition before throwing the javelin and shot-put.
Brisbane athlete 72-year-old Wilma Perkins competes in the pole vault, shot-put and javelin. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Lamb)
Her top-of-the-podium finish will take her all the way to the World Masters Athletics Tampere 2022 in Finland at the end of the month.
But Perkins is better known for her work off the track organising volunteers and competitions over more than 35 years in the sport.
"Over the years I've done a lot of work, fighting, trying to get changes to improve the sport for women," she said.
Perkins has been the driving force behind several changes, such as smaller incremental increases for older women in field events like high jump, and for allowing one false start in track races before a competitor is disqualified.
"We aren't professional athletes … come on and give us a break,"she said.
Wilma Perkins throws the javelin at the Mackay athletics event. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Lamb.)
Like many athletes, Perkinsis all too familiar with watching her personal bests fall every year as her body ages.
"Masters work in five-year age groups … so every five years you can set new goals, have a rebirth and do it all again," she said.
"Who wants to be 49 and running against younger people when you can be 50 and be the youngest?"