Wednesday 15 June 2005

fastkathy

Posted by speedygeoff on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 with
Kathy and Geoff Sims are off to the World Masters Games in July - that's the games in Edmonton, not the ones in San Sebastian. July seems like a good time of year to leave cold Canberra (see photo below) and head off to a Northern summer in Canada.

Consie is also attending those games.

Track is on between 24 and 31 July. Kathy has entered the 800, 1500, 5000 and 8k cross country, and Geoff the 200, 400 and 800.

They leave Canberra on 7 July and head for Paris and Ireland on the way to Edmonton.

After the World Masters, they then head off to Honolulu to compete in the US Masters track championships, which are on between 4 and 7 August.

Kathy hopes to better the times she was running here last summer, so has been doing lots of speed work as part of her recent training.

Kathy's records as a W50 speak for themselves. In a brilliant burst of top form as a 50 year old, between January and March 2002 she set four ACT records - 5:54.2 for the mile on 31 January; then 11:47 for the 3000 on 7 February, an outstanding performance at 6pm on a hot and windy day, where she left the previous record holder Rosemary Longstaff half a lap behind; then 5:29 for the 1500 on the 14th February, and finally 2:43 for the 800 on the 2nd March. Subsequently she went on to win the National 800 in 2:42.93 by the narrowest of margins from Maureen Rossiter. Maureen went on in later seasons to break that record, but Kathy's other times still stand. She has also been in numerous relay team that have set ACT records.

Kathy's qualities are her poise, confidence, and determination. We hope she has a wonderful time in Europe and North America and comes back fresh and rested and motivated to train on.

Her highlight this year has been becoming a grandmother for the first time, when Alex Geoffrey Osborn arrived. She was telling me that her grandson received a very special present from great grandad (Kathy's father) who presented his first boy descendent with a football signed by the Wales RU team which he has been keeping for such an occasion. Kathy's dad was the first ACT referee to be in the pool of referees when international teams came out to Australia.

I hope I will be around in ten to twenty years time to see how Alex's career develops, whether as a runner, rugby player, volleyballer, gymnast or whatever!


Kathy enjoying a wet half marathon


festive kathy


speedy kathy


winning kathy

click on photos for a larger version
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