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Times Sport
ATHLETICS: A.C.T. CHAMPIONSHIPS
Easy shot-put victory
Vanessa Browne, of the Australian Institute of Sport, clears the bar during the senior women's high jump at the ACT Athletic Association's Commonwealth Bank track-and-field championships at the National Sports Centre yesterday. Browne cleared 1.90m to win from Cathy Sharpe, also of the institute, who jumped 1.76m. Help
Vanessa Browne, of the Australian Institute of Sport, clears the bar during the senior women's high jump at the ACT Athletic
Association's Commonwealth Bank track-and-field championships at the National Sports Centre yesterday. Browne cleared 1.90m to win
from Cathy Sharpe, also of the institute, who jumped 1.76m.
Sydney's Stuart Gyngcll won the senior
men's shot put at the ACT Athletic Associ
ation's Commonwealth Bank track-and
field championships in convincing fashion
yesterday in conditions far from ideal for
him.
Gyngell, of Ramsgate Rams, drove
down from Sydney for the titles, expecting
strong competition from Phil Nettle and
Paul Nandapi, of the Australian Institute
of Sport.
But when he arrived, he found Nettle
out with an ankle injury and Nandapi
sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Gyngell, who said he would have com
peted anyway, did not know about their
withdrawal until he arrived from Sydney
only a few hours before competing.
He was delayed in Sydney because his
shot put had to be weighed after his NSW
senior record of 18.50m at a twilight
meeting at Sydney's E. S. Marks Field on
Wednesday night.
That was only eight centimetres short
of Nettle's national record.
Gyngcll, who is 190cm and 113kg and
coached by Keith Bennett, was confident
he could have done better than his win
ning effort of 17.95m yesterday with
stronger competition and the right condi
tions.
There were few spectators to see
Gyngell beat the AIS duo of Merv Kemp
and Stuart Andrews, who threw 13.94m
and 13.34m respectively.
Gyngell was loath to describe his event
as "dead" but said it was hard to get
motivated on a day when atmosphere and
competition were lacking.
From St Ives, Gyngell has been throw
ing since he was 10 and concentrating
seriously on it over the past three years.
Gyngell has done three of his five years
in a veterinary science course at the Uni
versity of Sydney.
He is reluctant to move to Canberra if
offered a place at the AIS because veter
inary science is not available at the ANU.
Gyngell will take this year off from
studies to go to the US to train before the
Pacific Conference Games in Berkeley,
California, in June.
Then he travels to Italy to train with
Jimmy Piedmonte.
His aim is to win at the national titles
in Canberra from March 29 to 31, and
then aim for Pacific Conference Games
and World Cup selection.
He is confident of doing well because
Nettle has been injured and is not throw
ing well, while Ray Rigby is not throwing
this year.
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