Jamieson wins world’s top Masters’ Athletics award

Champion walker Andrew Jamieson has won the most prestigious awardin Masters’ Athletics, the IAAF Masters’ Athlete of the Year. Jamieson, 61, will be presented with his award at a gala dinner in Monacoon November 25.The presentation will be made in conjunction with the IAAF’s Athlete of the Year awards, for which the male nominees are US sprinter Tyson Gay,Ethiopian distance running legend Haile Gebrselassie and champion sprinthurdler Liu Xiang, of China.The female nominees are the world’s top middle distance runner Meseret Defar, of Ethiopia, decathlete Carolina Kluft of Sweden, and Croatian highjumper Blanka Vlasic.

Jamieson broke 11 world records during the year and won five goldmedals at the recent World Masters’ Athletics Championships in Italy.While several of the world records he broke during the year were his own,he currently holds every Australian record from 3km to 50km and has worldmarks to his credit at 3km (13m 24.07s), 5km (22m 38.07s), 10km (46m 22.01s)and 30km (1h 35m 56.5s). At the WMA Championships in Riccione, Italy, in September he won the 5km track walk and the 10km and 20km road walks and was a member of the gold medal winning teams in each of the two latter events.Jamieson, formerly one of Australia’s top surgeons, is a member of the Doncaster venue of Victorian Masters’ Athletics but seldom competes at venuelevel since retiring and moving from North Balwyn to Fish Creek, in South Gippsland, a couple of years ago.He still competes on a regular basis at Athletics Victoria inter-clubmeetings representing Old Scotch.Jamieson was a handy runner in his younger days before a back injury caused him to switch to walking.He is renowned for his tough training sessions and has been unrivalled in Australian Masters’ Athletics during the past decade. He currently holds 19 Australian records over distances ranging from 1500 metres to 50km. Jamieson’s wife Lyn has also been prominent in Masters’ Athletics and won the Australian 1500 metres title in the Women’s 45-49 age group in Canberra in 1999 before injury problems forced her to scale down herinvolvement in the sport.

The Jamiesons leave for Monaco on November 22. Their only regret isthat the invitation is only for two, which means Andrew’s training partner, theirkelpie Richie, will have to stay at home.