Going into the Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast earlier this month, Singleton sprinter, Nicole Robinson, knew she had to lift.
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After all the dedicated athlete had peaked for the Perth 2016 World Masters Championships in mid-October.
But, like all true champions, she rose to the occasion. Robinson claimed victory in both the 60m (indoor) and 100m 40-44 years sprint events. Securing the wins means she has now won the double at three consecutive Pan Pacs.
However, in 2014 and 2012 she competed in 35-39 years age group.
The 10th biennial Jupiters Pan Pacific Masters Games were held from November 5 to 13, and it is described as the “world’s biggest and best biennial masters games showcasing competition in more than 40 sports”.
Although the fierce competitor admits it was the World Masters Athletics Championships (WMAC) she had set herself for. With plenty of international experience under her belt, racing and testing herself in the larger field, was something she had been looking forward to.
“At a state and national level you often find yourself competing against the same group of women but at the worlds it is a much larger field,” she explains.
“Unfortunately I had a niggling ankle injury and just couldn’t run as fast as I wanted to.” Robinson says she came seventh in the final after qualifying in her heat. “I was selected in the relay team but I couldn’t stay over in Perth for that long but they ended up winning gold.”
Robinson has had a long, and successful, career on the track.
After playing many sports as a child, she decided to concentrate on sprinting at the age of 15.
Robinson can remember her first taste of “running fast and liking it”.
“I was watching a junior rugby league game with my family and they called the boys up for a sprint race before the game,” she explains.
“I asked my Dad why I couldn’t go in it? Then, I think my mum asked someone if I could enter.”
And as it turns out, she ended up beating all the boys. Earlier in her career, Robinson was ranked second in the country and narrowly missed out on running in the 100m sprint at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In 2001, at 26 years-of-age the post-graduate uni student competed in China at the World University games.
These days as 40-year-old mother-of-two, mindset coach, and part-time PE teacher, still trains four or five times a week, has a coach, and is a member of the Mingara Athletics Club on the central coast.
“I can’t imagine not training; I need a pursuit to propel myself forward – to be better. I also feel I need to set an example, considering what I do.”
Her mindset coaching has seen her work with some junior players at the Newcastle Knights, and Hunter Valley Cricket representatives.