Mastering her craft in her 40s

Jack Malcolm

After being sidelined with multiple, potentially season-ending injuries, Joeline Jones was surprised by her performance at the World Masters Indoor Athletic Championships in Poland.

Having torn her calf muscle twice this year and suffered through Achilles Tendinitis, she says her stubbornness was the only thing that kept her on track.

“My goal was to get into a final, but I didn’t expect that it’d be for the 400m.

“Because I’ve had so many injuries, I wanted to pull out of that event. To get fourth was a bit of a shock.” and butter, and the 400m was a race that her coach, Tony Aikenhead, had to convince her to compete in. Because of her injuries, her training had to be modified because she could only sprint and not jog.

She hadn’t raced 400m since November and says she felt like she was about to vomit on the starting line.

“This is a tough race that some say feels like torture (and is) also dubbed the death race as athletes have to hold a high speed for a long distance.” fun and tactical, and she plans to be back for the next Masters Indoor Champs in two years.

As she worked her way through the heats and into the knockouts, she says she became more confident at every race start.

“I would love to go there injury-free, and I’d like to crack the 60s mark for the 400.”

While she might be the only person out on track racing, she says it’s the team behind her that has made her success happen.

Sports Clinic Nelson helped to keep her on her feet and racing through her injuries trouble and World Travellers Motueka and Athletics Nelson also chipped in to help with the travel expenses.

Joeline Jones says it was a unique experience to race on an indoor track for the first time because of the differences to the tracks she’s used to racing on. Photo: Supplied.

Rugby

Waimea Combined Schools first XV kick their season off this weekend as they host Rangiora High School. With a mixed preseason weekend in Hanmer of two wins over Roncalli and Hurunui, the team also faced two losses against Selwyn and Mid Canterbury. They also faced a 7-0 loss to Nelson College’s second XV in their build-up to the season. This year the Waimea Combined Barbarians will play in the second division, the Miles Toyota Championship, after changes to the competition structure.

Weather

Bad weather and a forecast for more to come over the weekend saw sports throughout the region cancelled. All local sport was called off except the Giant’s Saturday night game. while Nelson Suburbs travelled to Christchurch but were unable to produce an upset against competition front runners Christchurch United in a 4-0 loss. full reports on the Nelson App.

Cycling

A crash has dashed Niamh Fisher-Black’s hopes of a podium finish in La Vuelta Femenina. Having sat inside the top 10 of the general classifications coming into the fifth stage, Nimah had to wait to change her bike after the crash which saw her fall behind the pace of the lead pack, forced into accepting her fate as she crossed the finish line as part of the chasing peloton, falling to 1:45 seconds off the pace on the leaderboards.

Hockey

Premier men hockey’s Whakatu Shield goes on the line this weekend in a winner-take-all match between Tasman White and Waimai United.

Joeline also made the semi-finals in the 40-44 women’s 200m and 60m events, setting a new national record for the 60m and missing the New Zealand record for the 200m by just 0.1 of a second.

She says the sprints are her bread

It was the first time she’d raced on an indoor track, and it was a sharp learning curve to get up to speed.

“It’s very different. The first couple of rounds, I kept changing lanes because it was a banked track. It’s also 200m, not 400m, so it’s a bit tighter.”

She says it made racing a lot more

She also credits her coach for much of her success, expecting to be training hard despite having a slightly quieter competition season next summer with just three planned events.

“Tony’s awesome. He’s been absolutely amazing. It’s been my first full season under him, and he’s changed a lot of my technique.