World masters gold, silver for Sunderland

Article in our local paper - Nelson Mail


WALKING BACK TO HAPPINESS: Nyle Sunderland displays the gold and silver medals she won at the 2009 World Masters Games in Sydney.


Just a year after winning three gold medals at the Oceania Masters Games in Townsville, Nelson race walker Nyle Sunderland has returned home from Sydney's World Masters Games with a gold and silver medal.

Now the 42-year-old athlete is looking seriously at heading to Sacramento, California, in 2011 to compete at the World Masters track and field championships as potentially the pinnacle of her competitive career.

In Sydney, she missed out on the 10km road walk gold by around 12sec, despite finishing in a personal best time of 59min 50sec.

She was one of nine competitors in her 40-44 age group competing over a 2km loop course at Paramatta Park, eventually finishing second to Australia's Fiona Porley.

"[The course] had two slight rises coming up to each turn so it wasn't a fast course," said Sunderland. "Those rises didn't feel like much for the first couple of kilometres but, trust me, by the end they felt like mountains."

Sunderland's tactic had been to sit on Porley's heel from the 2km mark before trying to walk her down, which almost worked.

"At the 9km mark, she pulled out from me and I made the choice to follow and I probably should have waited because when I caught her, she gave one last burst and I couldn't keep up. It was a really tight race. She lives in the Blue Mountains and trains on the Paramatta track so she knew it like the back of her hand."

That wasn't the end of the drama, though, as both athletes ultimately succumbed to the heat.

"She collapsed at the finish line and was being attended to, then about three minutes later I did the exact same thing. I think it was just all the heat and exertion and over-excitement ... but both of us were carted off by paramedics and given oxygen. It was only about 25 degrees, which doesn't seem like much. It just felt hotter because of the black tarmac we were walking on.

"The heat coming off that was just phenomenal and you were quite sort of dehydrated anyway, it didn't matter how much water you'd drunk."

Anticipating a rematch with Porley in the 5000m track race at Olympic Park five days later, Sunderland was disappointed to learn that the Aussie had withdrawn as they prepared for the start, supposedly still feeling the effects of her 10km victory.

"I was so psyched to give her a really good battle and she pulled out."

Strategically, Sunderland again planned to "let the rabbits go absolutely ballistic" before reeling them in.

Having also been grouped with the 35-39 competitors, "I'd pretty much caught them all up by the first lap and continued to stay strong in the field and led both age groups the whole way round", she said.
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Her time of 28min 28sec was also a personal best by around a minute. "I had to look twice at the clock myself, I couldn't believe it. It was a phenomenal race."

Sunderland said she was fitter and faster than she'd ever been and attributed much of her success to the support of mentor Stephen Farquhar, training partner Peter Hague and husband, Shane.

"Without their help, I wouldn't have achieved what I did."