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Jana
Pittman, right, jumps a hurdle in the women's 400m hurdles
final, ahead of Ionela Tirlea of Romania on August 28 during
the 9th Athletics World Championships at the Stade de France
in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP
SCdt Ryan Pittman practises hurdling at the RMC obstacle
course.
Photo by Cpl Damian Shovell, Army newspaper
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Cryptic
message for track star’s brother
By
Cpl Damian Shovell
WHILE the new world 400m hurdles champion, Jana Pittman, is jumping
hurdles and winning gold medals, her brother SCdt Ryan Pittman is
jumping through the hoops at RMC.
SCdt
Pittman missed watching his sister’s 400m hurdles event at
the World Athletics Championships in Paris last month; instead he
was enjoying a crisp morning on one of RMC’s field training
exercises.
Never
to pass up a training opportunity, the staff encrypted the news
of his sister’s win and sent it over the radio.
To
add to the suspense, he only received “Pittman wo”, before
the batteries failed.
Left
wondering whether the message read “Pittman won”, “Pittman
world champion”, or any of the other possible variations, he
was forced to wait for the batteries to be replaced and the message
deciphered before he finally received confirmation of his sister’s
win.
“I
had a mixed reaction of being ecstatic for her win and being a bit
disappointed not to have been able to watch it,” he said.
It
wasn’t until the following Sunday that he was able to squeeze
in a short five-minute phone call to congratulate her, or catch
a glimpse of the last 100m of her race on the news.
SCdt
Pittman joined Kokoda Coy at RMC in honour of his grandfather, LCpl
John Pittman, who served in New Guinea in WW2.
His
grandfather also won the 6 Div 100 yards championship at Atherton
during his career, although SCdt Pittman feels the athletics gene
must have skipped him as he claims no great athletic prowess and
prefers the rugby field to the track.
When
asked of his aspirations in the Army, SCdt Pittman said he’s
leaning heavily toward pursuing a career as an infantry officer.
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