Eureka Orienteers Geoff and Jenny Lawford have won gold before, but this was the first time husband and wife have stood on the podium together.
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The annual World Masters Orienteering Championships was held in conjunction with this year’s World Masters Games in Auckland.
Geoff and Jenny won the men’s and women’s sprint orienteering events in the 60 to 65 age category, while Eureka Orienteers’ Dale Gordon received bronze in the women’s 75 age category.
Geoff said sharing success with his wife was “terrific”.
“I don’t know if a husband and wife have won the same age class before… so it’s pretty unusual for any couple around the world,” he said.
“It is really satisfying because it is what we have done for a long time now.”
Geoff has previously won gold in Sweden and silver in Estonia, while Jenny has an impressive eight gold medals to her name.
“With orienteering, you never know who is coming or what the competition will be like and you can just lose your concentration for just a second and then it is all over,” Jenny said.
“So you’re never confident, but you are hopeful… so to both win the gold medal made it even more special.”
Another standout performer was Wendouree-Ballarat Rowing Club oarswoman Lee-Anne Martin, who had a haul of medals that included three gold, three silver and three bronze after competing in 10 events.
“I really don’t have much expectation when I row now, I just go out and enjoy it,” Martin said.
“It was some hard competition and every race was a real challenge, so if you can come away with a medal that’s a bonus.
“But we’ve got a pretty good crew, so most meets we try to get in those top three places.”
Martin’s first international competition happened to be the 2002 World Masters Games held in her hometown of Ballarat.
“The good thing about Masters is it is not all competition, there is a good social atmosphere as well and you’re doing it for the love of the sport – it doesn’t matter what ability you are, what category or what age,” Martin said.
Meanwhile Ballarat Olympian Stuart Brehaut took away a silver medal in the A-grade 35+ badminton teams event after joining players he had formerly competed against on the world tour.
His team lost the final to a strong team from Indonesia that boasted two Olympic gold medallists.
“Between their players, they would have probably had six world championship titles and maybe 100 major badminton titles around the world,” Brehaut said.
“But it was a really good chance to catch up with everyone so it was good fun.”
He said the overall competition had been a similar size to the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.