Six Eastern Bay athletes have returned from the New Zealand Master Athletics Championships in Auckland with an array of medals and personal bests.

Coach and athlete Brenda Davis led the team, which included Racheal Savage and Sarah Hockley who had returned to athletics after each taking a year’s hiatus.

They were joined by David Grimwood, Ana-Mree Ngaheu and Jennifer Kavetoa who had been training only for the past 18 months, but all managed to take home medals in their categories.

It was the first time the three, and Hockley, had competed at the nationals.

“Racheal competed last year, and I’ve been competing for 15 years now so it’s nice to have this group of masters who are so keen. I’m loving coaching them,” Davis said.

In the Women’s 55 category, Davis took home gold medals in the hammer, discus, shotput, weight throw and throws pentathlon events, as well as a silver in javelin.

She won the women’s combined events award for the 2024 season for the first time, and the women’s thrower of the year award for the first time since 2016.

In the Women’s 35, Hockley took home gold medals for the 60 metres, 100m, 200m track events, javelin, and the track pentathlon, also scoring a personal best in the javelin and pentathlon. She won silver in the discus and shotput.

In the same category, Ngaheu came home with silver medals in the hammer throw, 3000m, weight throw and throws pentathlon, with personal bests in the latter two. She finished fourth in the 1500m.

The Women’s 40 category saw Kavetoa take the gold in javelin, hammer throw, weight throw, and throws pentathlon. She won silver medals in the discus and shotput, achieving a personal best in shotput.

Savage dominated the Women’s 45 category, with golds and personal bests in the triple jump and throws pentathlon, and a gold in the shotput. She won silver in the javelin, hammer throw, discus and weight throw, with personal bests in the hammer and weight throws.

Grimwood took bronze and a personal best in the shotput Men’s 45 and came fourth in the javelin.

Davis said she was proud of her team, particularly considering the competition and age percentages, as well as personal records broken on the weekend.

“Because we train in Kawerau for the majority of the time, they are not used to the cage. It was pretty daunting having to throw from the hammer cage, which is huge, but they did amazing,” she said.

Davis also competed in the inaugural Police & FENZ Championships held at the same time, taking the gold in the hammer throw, shotput, discus, weight throw, javelin and track pentathlon.