By Danny Daniels
Contributor
“It’s not just the competitions, which are exciting – it’s the training that goes into it.”
Anne Murfitt, 54, was commenting on her six Canadian Masters Championship gold medals she proudly brought back from Regina earlier this month.
Murfitt, who spent many Saturday morning training sessions at the Parkland Secondary School track during the winter, triumphed in both the throws pentathlon and in the individual throwing events which followed. Her best performance in the individual events was the W50 hammer throw. She also took first place in the shot put, discus, javelin and the weight throw.
In the combined throws pentathlon, she did even better in most of those same events, culminating in a 20.59m hammer throw, for 1,781 points.
Also competing was Les East, 73, who holds the B.C. Masters record in the M70 high jump. He won both this event and the triple jump to capture two Canadian Championships. These gold medals went with six silvers East secured in the long jump, discus, shot, hammer, weight throw and the throws pentathlon in which he scored 2,860 points.
Next up for East are the B.C. Seniors Games in Kamloops (Murfitt is still too young for those) while Jack Thornburgh (M60) prepares for the Olympic Peninsula Senior Games in Port Angeles. Peggy Morfitt (W75) is focusing on the World Masters Athletics Championships in Porto Alegre, Brazil in October.