15.10.2009

Victoria to celebrate 80 years of women in athletics

On the eve of the 2009/10 Australian domestic season, Athletics Victoria is getting set to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Victorian Women's Amateur Athletic Association on November 15.

The event will mark the contribution made by women such as 85-year-old Jean Gell to the sport of track and field since the Association was formed back in 1929. 

Gell, who joined the Eastern Suburbs Athletics Club in 1939 and is still active within the track and field community as a competition day announcer, will join the likes of former Olympic 400m gold medallist Catherine Freeman to celebrate 80 years of Victorian women's athletics.

In recognition of her service to athletics Gell, who was the first female Victorian Olympic Committee executive member, has been honoured as a life member of Athletics Victoria and Athletics Australia, and in 2007 was awarded the Order of Australia medal for her contribution to athletics in Victoria as a competitor, manager and official, and as a contributor to the development of women's athletics.

In 70 years of involvement in the sport Gell has seen it all, from the days when she would dig a hole into the track at the start line for her feet to the invention of starting blocks by her coach, Charlie Booth.

"At the finish, you had to go through the tape," she told the Herald Sun. "You had to break the tape with your torso."

Gell will be joined by three other icons of the Victorian athletics community with 70 years' service to their name at the official 80th anniversary celebration at Melbourne Town Hall on November 15 - Amy Burow, 90; Joy Bradbury, 88; and Phyllis Andersson, 88.

Debbie Flintoff-King is also expected to attend the event alongside fellow invitees Pam Ryan (nee Kilborn), a two-time Olympic hurdles medallist in the 1960s, and Brenda Carr (nee Jones), who won Victoria's first female Olympic medal with silver in the 800m at the 1960 edition of the Games in Rome.

Formed in 1929, the VWAA amalgamated with the Victorian Amateur Athletic Association in the 1980s to become Athletics Victoria.

For further information visit www.athsvic.org.au