Colville leaps on to scene with silver - News - LIVING SPORT

Colville leaps on to scene with silver

Little more than four months ago, Jennifer Coville had not considered or taken part in athletics for more than 40 years.

But 19 weeks later, the 57 year-old was standing on the medal rostrum at the British Masters Heptathlon Championships in Oxford having won a silver medal. It was a whirlwind turnaround from an aerobics participant to a multi-eventer, which started with a chance encounter.

The sudden development happened after bumping into the husband of a member from her aerobics class, this person being Wayne DuBose, the vice-chairman of Huntingdon Athletics Club and a UK Athletics-qualified coach. Positive discussions between the pair resulted in Colville agreeing to train for the Championships.

DuBose then devised a tough but progressive training programme for Colville that allowed her to work towards reaching the standard of a British heptathlete.

When the competition arrived, Coville had to shrug off an injury, but on the first day, she set four personal bests - based on her training displays - on the first day clocking 21.22sec in the 80m hurdles, 1.03m in the high jump, 6.51m in the shot put and 39.26sec in the 200m.

Coville, who ended her short track and field career in the early 1960s, set 3.13m in the long jump on the second day, threw 16.19m in the javelin and was timed at 4min 7.62sec in the 800m, giving her a total of 2,523 points.

To read the full article on Jennifer Colville, follow this link.

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