Mandy Mason is on a race to become world champion

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Western Australia has produced some of the nation's finest female athletes, from sprinter Shirley Strickland's golden career of the 1950s to modern day pole vault champion Nina Kennedy. Now another competitor is etching her name into the record books, and proving age is no barrier to success.

Transcript

00:00 At 56, Mandy Mason could be looking to slow down.

00:07 The Perth mother of two has spent years ensuring daughter Juliet, born with autism and a severe

00:14 intellectual impairment, has the skills to cope with adult life.

00:19 But with that task well on track, the behaviour scientist and Masters athlete has just one

00:25 plan, speeding up.

00:28 Well I want to be world champion, I want to break some world records.

00:33 It's a goal now twice achieved after Mandy broke world records in the 60 metre and 200

00:39 metre women's 55 category a fortnight ago.

00:42 A remarkable achievement for the former long distance runner who converted to sprinting

00:46 just a few years ago.

00:48 I always sort of kept up running as part of my discipline just in my life and I guess

00:53 it's my drug of choice.

00:55 For coach Aaron Bresland, that focus on improvement has made working with Mandy a dream.

01:00 Straight away listens to everything I say, doesn't go off the rails in terms of challenging

01:05 any thoughts or anything, just listens, does the work and makes my life a lot easier.

01:09 Mandy's next target, adding the 100 metres to her record collection.

01:13 Every morning I wake up, first thing I do is visualise that race and make sure that

01:16 my transitions and everything look perfect.

01:20 First among those at the finish line will be fellow sprinter Juliette, a member of Athletics

01:25 West's emerging athlete program.

01:27 I love the fact that I get to cross the line and then look back and Gigi's warming up.

01:31 I just found a sport where we both can do that and I never imagined that was possible.

01:34 Mandy aims to maintain her conditioning to ensure she's around for her daughter in the

01:38 future and has her eyes on one day completing a clean sweep of all Masters sprint records

01:44 up to the cut off age of 105.

01:46 I think the world record for the 100 metres is like a minute 30 or something.

01:51 So you know, at this trajectory I might be able to maintain that.

01:54 It's a goal well worth running for.

01:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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