There was one theme that shone more brightly than any other during the more than 50-year involvement in athletics of Penny Gillies who lost her brave fight with cancer on 10 September.
From being prepared for her own personal success on the track at the highest levels, to guiding her own squad and national teams and eventually an exceptional role as a mentor to future generations – it was coaching.
Penny McCallum arrived in the sport at a time when Australia was a world power in women’s hurdling. To be a part of that, Penny needed guidance from the best and she discovered that in June Ferguson, a female coach who excelled in a field dominated in Australia (and elsewhere) by men. When it came time for a move, Penny found herself under the tutelage of two more trailblazing women coaches – Nancy Atterton and Betty Moore.
Under their respective mentorships, Penny stood on the Australian Championships dais 14 times and represented in six major level international competitions.
There were two distinct phases in Penny’s career. As a junior, she excelled in the pentathlon and two of its constituent events – long jump and the then 80m hurdles. There were national junior pentathlon titles in 1968 and 1969, a silver in 1967 along with three minor medals in individual events.
Penny’s first national senior medal also came in 1969 – one of two years when the Australian Championships included both the 80m and 100m hurdles. After finishing fourth in the shorter event final, Penny took the silver behind the legendary Pam Kilborn, two spots ahead of reigning Olympic champion, Maureen Caird.
More was to come in phase one. First of all, there was selection in the inaugural Pacific Conference Games in Tokyo and a silver medal in the 100m hurdles. A year on and the Nationals doubled as the trials for the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. Penny assured herself of Games selection with a competitive third behind the Olympic medallists Caird and Kilborn.
In Scotland, section manager Graeme Briggs thought the women hurdlers would benefit from a hit-out before their main event so he confirmed the three of them for the pentathlon for which the hurdles was the first event. Like Pam, Penny played that game a little longer and threw the shot before withdrawing.
In the final of the actual hurdles, Penny was fourth recording the same time 13.82 as the bronze medallist, England’s Chris Bell. It was a close call, with even the British commentator thinking that Penny had got it.
After taking a pass on the 1971 Australian Championships, Penny (now Gillies) set herself a big schedule for the 1972 Nationals in Perth, despite them also serving as the major selection event for that year’s Munich Olympics – contesting the 100 and 200 metres and the 4x100m relay as well as her pet event. In the hurdles she left nothing to chance – taking the gold in 13.3 (hand) just ahead of Pam with Maureen in third. At her first Olympics she was sixth in her heat.
After a break in the mid-1970s to start a family and deal with persistent Achilles injuries, Penny returned to active competition – by then as the dominant female hurdler in the country. She won her second national 100m hurdles championship in 1977 by half a second before winning three more – consecutively in 1979, 1980 and 1981.
Phase two also brought more international caps – for two World Cups and a second Olympic Games. In Moscow in 1980 Penny was again sixth in her heat – the same outcome as in Munich eight years earlier.
Upon retirement from active participation on the track, Penny’s grounding from her mentors eventually drew her to forming her own squad. With her professional background in education and the specific training skills she had acquired Penny was a perfect fit for the role – all of which was subsequently delivered essentially as a volunteer.
Penny rose within the sport to become a Level 5 Coach in Sprints and Hurdles which sat on an equal footing alongside her professional qualifications – a Diploma in Teaching and Bachelor of Education. She explored further obtaining a Master of Education with Merit from Sydney University on the Dean’s List of Scholars.
Whilst for many that Level 5 qualification involves a specialisation in one or the other discipline – in Penny’s case it was clearly both. Whether at club, state or international level, those under her guidance became skilled and, in many cases, highly successful in sprints (and longer distances) or hurdles or indeed both.
James Gurr, Joel Milburn, Bella O’Grady, Steve Solomon, Jaimee-Lee Starr, Olivia Tauro were among her class athletes at 400 metres and below whilst Tristan Garrett, Charlie Jeffreson, Tilly Ryan, Lora Storey and Carly Thomas excelled over two laps of the track.
Nicole Gale, Tara Holt, Jacquie Munro, Gareth Watkins and Charlotte Yeates all represented Australia over the barriers under Penny’s guidance whilst Hayley Butler and Abbie Taddeo shone in both sprints and hurdles nationally and internationally.
And there were many more who benefitted from Penny’s great skill and wise and caring tutelage.
In the final years of her running career Penny worked as a development officer for Little Athletics. Thereafter she balanced highly respected roles as a teacher at Pymble Ladies College, St Joseph’s College Hunter’s Hill and Arden Anglican School with her after hours and weekend passion for coaching athletes.
Such were Penny’s qualities that in both of these aspects of her life, she was equally comfortable in working with and nurturing both young women and young men – and was brilliant at both.
Which in turn, explains in some way the next feature of her extensive voluntary involvement in athletics. Few have been as respected as Penny when it came to being entrusted so often with national team service as an official.
For more than 25 years from when Penny was first asked to be a team coach of an under 20 tour to New Zealand in preparation for a further appointment later that year for the World Juniors in Sydney, she received the call up on more than 20 occasions.
That these roles spanned youth, junior and senior teams emphasises just how much Penny’s qualities and skills were in demand. Included were three World Championships, three Commonwealth Games and a third Olympics this time as an official. There were five major Youth Teams and another three World Juniors.
Amongst Penny’s proudest team moments were her guidance of the gold medal winning teams in the women’s 4x400m relay at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games and the men’s bronze medal in the same event at the 2009 World Championships.
She was also in the ongoing performance leadership role as National Youth hurdles coach from 2006 to 2008.
If all of that were not enough of a record to remember a splendid life of service to her sport, there was a final story to be recalled and for those closest to these programs they may say it tells of Penny’s finest contribution.
In 2022, whilst still guiding her own squad, Penny found time to enthusiastically become an inaugural mentor in the Australian Athletics High Performance Coach Mentoring Program. She made a significant contribution to its success to date and her input will remain highly valuable long into the future. She was a generous and committed mentor who shared her vast knowledge and experience to support the development of the next generation of high performance coaches. Her contribution to the program and the coaches she mentored is greatly valued.
Penny was a humble contributor and servant but in explaining why she wanted to be part of this program, she acknowledged why she thought she could make a difference.
She related that as an athlete she was coached by those three female coaches who were ahead of their time – June (also coach of Betty Cuthbert and Maureen Caird), Nancy and Betty, who helped mentor her and guide her into coaching. Penny wanted to pass on some of the experience and stories that she gathered over the years and, in particular, to continue on the good work these women initiated with her. She was proud to see the inter-generational baton passed on when Abbie Taddeo signed-up for the athlete to coach transition program.
There is no doubt that Penny’s belief that she had a wealth of knowledge and experience to share both as an elite athlete and also as the coach of many elite sprints, hurdles, relays and 800m athletes and national teams over the years was correct.
Penny believed that as a coach, teacher and educator, she enjoyed seeing improvement and could make a difference in getting the best out of people. She was right there as well.
Penny received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for outstanding service as an athlete, coach and team official for more than 30 years and then the Medal of the Order of Australia in The King’s Birthday List of 2024 for services to athletics as a coach and competitor.
She was a member of the New South Wales Sports Advisory Council from 1995 to 2005 and was recognised within the sport with life membership of Athletics NSW in 2007 and Australian Athletics in 2010. Penny was Australian Athletics Pathways Coach of the Year in 2019, having been the recipient of Athletics NSW’s International Coach of the Year Award the previous year.
Penny’s personal best for the 100m hurdles was 13.10 set at Marks Field in Sydney in winning the Olympic Trials at the 1980 Australian Championships. Her hand timed bests for the 100m and 200m were 11.4 and 23.0 respectively.
Australian Athletics farewells a contributor of the highest order in myriad capacities and extends its condolences and thanks for sharing Penny with our sport to Les, her husband of more than 50 years, their son and daughter-in-law Andrew and Catherine and grandchildren Charlotte and Jack.
Penny’s Life will be celebrated on Wednesday 16 September at St Anthony’s Church, 54 Agincourt Road, Marsfield, New South Wales at 11.30am and afterwards at The Ranch Hotel, 108 Herring Road, Marsfield.
By Brian Roe, Australian Athletics
Posted 14/9/2026
