LOCAL WOMAN ROWS HER WAY TO FAME
(ANOTHER UPDATE)
By Dave Roberts
Some time back we looked at two women from Bunbury who went to the world masters games and represented Australia in the rowing. The point was to look around and see there are people who run the deli, or work at the real estate agent’s, who are taking on the world and winning, and it’s worth knowing that there are champions in our community.
Check out our previous article here.
Success breeds success, and obviously the rowing club in Bunbury has had enough success over the decades to develop a sense that it turns out winners. While there’s ice in the ground and it’s dark outside, I confess to mostly wanting to be home in bed, and when there’s not a work based reason that’s where I am. Others are putting in the miles on the water, or in the gym, so they can be champions.
Given my own more comfort based views on 5am, I was pretty darned impressed when a phone call came in a little while back from Lynnette Sleight, letting me know that this friend of the family now held two gold and one silver medals from the Australian masters, rowed on Nagambie Lakes in Victoria.
And while rowing is often a team sport, the individualist has to admire that one of the Gold medals was in the single scull, so in that one at least, you can’t have relied on your team mates to pull that little bit harder. Meanwhile, there were four women from the Bunbury rowing club at the Masters games, all with medals round their necks; Lynette, Liz Nordhoek, and of course Jenny Coote and Jenny Bingham who were a feature article in September 2004.
Those who know Lynette see her commitment to her sport. They also know that rowing your way to national championship has to be considered just that little harder for someone who had suffered a pushbike accident in training less than a year ago and had restricted use of one of her shoulders. While we talked about the recovery from the bike accident, and the rowing in the dark, and how much it hurts when you start to reach your limits and the opposition is still pulling hard, Lynnette looked at me with this twinkle that had to be from satisfaction. “Dave, pain is fleeting but glory lasts forever”.
The masters games are obviously something worth looking at. While they’re age limited, if you win nationally, you’re still the best in the nation on that day, in your age range. There are some very fit people out there well into their fifties, sixties, seventies, and they seem to be getting plenty out of their lives. Winning in your age bracket is about being the best that you can be, not just showing up on the day.
Stories come back from masters games that suggest that competitors still find the energy to get up to all sorts of fun after the competition winds up for the day, though just in case the kids are reading I’d never suggest there was misbehaviour.
This publication has noticed rowing, but there’s a masters category in most sports, and they’re well worth following up on. It’s also worth keeping an eye out, the neighbour might just be a champion.
July 2006
