THE Hawkesbury’s Heather Lee has broken two world record race walk times at the Australian Masters Athletics Championships, which was held in Perth at the end of April.
The 91-year-old broke the world record in both the five-kilometre and 10-kilometre race walk events for the women’s 90 category.
Lee’s five-kilometre time was 41 minutes 4.87 seconds, while her 10-kilometre time was one hour 25 minutes and 28 seconds.
Lee said going to the games she was determined to break the marks.
“That was my intention, my goal, I wanted to break the two records. I knew I could better my previous times. I've been training since last October to go to Perth,” he said.
"I wanted to do a sub-42 seconds on the five-kilometre and I came home having done it in 41.04 seconds,” she said.
“I've never done a time like that before, not even in practice.”
Lee competed in Tasmania last year where she broke records in the three-kilometre and five-kilometre race walks, but there was no 10-kilometre event there, so she was also keen to have a crack at it.
Her time beat the previous record, which was above 90 minutes. She added that she had not done a time below 90 minutes in four years.
“I am pretty chuffed. I did times that I thought were unbelievable,” she said.
Lee said she hoped she might be able to better those times in the future as well.
“I might be able to better my times but I don't know. I feel with a bit more training I could chip a second or two off,” she said.
Lee said the conditions in Perth were perfect for walking in.
“It was a cool morning and the sun was shining with a light breeze,” she said.
She added that the 10-kilometre track was a bit dodgy at places. She said a nice, flat track was ideal because it meant walkers could keep a good rhythm.
“The 10-kilometre course was rough, I didn't think I would finish,” she said.
“It was a different course to the world masters games course, which was a road closed to the public, but we couldn't do that for this one.
“It was through a park where there are trees and things and the tarmac was erupting everywhere, a lot of the other walkers said it was a rough track so I had to watch to where I walked in case I fell.”
