Rodney Stevens
Although he’s 86, there just no stopping the athletic phenomenon that is Tom Hancock, with the Maclean throws specialist picking up another four records at the recent Victorian Masters Athletic Championships.
Mr Hancock, who recently had an area of Maclean’s Wherrett Park dedicated as the ‘Tom Hancock Athletics Throwing Area’ said he drove to Doncaster in Melbourne’s suburbs to compete at the championships on February 11 and 12.
“I was in six events, and I was lucky to pick up two more Australian records and two Victorian records in the 85- to 90-year-old age group competing against two other men in my age group, which is a bit unusual in the 85-year-old and upwards,” he said.
“I broke the Australian record in the 85-to-90-year Javelin with a throw of 22.69 metres and the Australian record in the Discus with a throw of 25.79 metres,” he said.
“In the hammer throw I threw 31.97 metres which was a new Victorian record and, in the hammer throw I managed to get another Victorian record for a throw of 9.18 metres.
“So now I have six Australian records, with only two left for the grand slam of the throws, the hammer and shot.”
At his age, and with numerous state records and six national records, The Independent asked Mr Hancock whether that would be his last athletics competition.
“No way,” he quickly responded.
Mr Hancock said his longevity in athletic competition was due to his training regime, playing tennis, weight training and eating a healthy balanced diet.
Now he has set his sights on training for a world record.
“I looked up the world records and my throws pentathlon (five throwing events) score last year was 4080 and that’s only about 70 points off a world record,” he said.
“Out of all the throwing events, that seems the one I should aim for if I’m going for a world record.
“So, if I improved a little bit in a couple of events, I would actually get the world record.”
“It means I’ll have to train for the five events, but it’s always good to have something to go for and a world record would be worth the training.”
The next Masters Athletics Championships Mr Hancock said he will compete in will be held in Brisbane in October.