Sport
Our golden girl
By Barry Rollings

Edition 4909, 31 May, 2007
 
LITTLE LEGEND: ACW Cassie Fien (left) from RAAF Base Amberley is congratulated by Army competitor, CPL Rebecca Christou, for winning the 1500m race during the Arafura Games in Darwin.
Photo by CPL Gary Ewart
 
HIGH ROLLER: CPL Geoff Hanckel from RAAF Base Richmond competes in the triathlon event, in which he won silver.
Photo by LS Helen Frank
 
Even the legendary ABC sports commentator Norman May might have been stuck for superlatives to describe ACW Cassie Fien’s golden Arafura Games.

May’s famous “gold, gold, gold (for Australia)” chant would have suited her achievements just fine except that she won not three, but four, gold medals at the games in Darwin from May 11-19.

Medals were up for grabs in 24 sports as hundreds of athletes from around the world competed.

As host nation, Australia garnered 698 medals (248 gold, 251 silver and 199 bronze), of which the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO) collected 20, 21 and 18 for a total of 59.

Diminutive ACW Fien, a MWD handler from RAAF Base Amberley, won four gold medals in athletics – two of them in record time.

Her efforts underlined a successful games for Air Force with fellow athletes ACW Brooke Reynolds from RAAF Base Williamtown, LAC Will Harding from RAAF Base Townsville, FLTLT Richard Gardiner from RAAF Base Williamtown and triathlete CPL Geoff Hanckel from RAAF Base Richmond, also bringing home medals.

ACW Fien won the classic distance double of the women’s 5000m and 10,000m, both in record times of 17:35.42 and 36:23.93 respectively.

She also won the half-marathon in 1:26.40 and the 1500m in 4:46.47.

ACW Fien said the change of climate had improved her performances, borne out by the fact that she produced personal best times in all four events.

“My games experience was great and the competition was really good,” she said. “It was friendly competition as well, which was a nice surprise. I had never been to the competition before.

“The win in the 1500m was the most surprising because I am more of a long distance runner.”

Another impressive performance was that of field athlete ACW Reynolds, who won the javelin on the last throw of the night with a 32:43m effort.

ACW Reynolds came second in the discus with 37.73m and she also took third in the shot put with her throw of 10.1m.

FLTLT Gardiner finished second in the men’s half-marathon in 1:19.45 and was also second in the 10,000m in 33:59.68.

Surprise package LAC Will Harding worked hard in the men’s 1500m resulting in a gallant fourth in 4:09:66, which was also a personal best. LAC Harding showed true champion qualities when he came back to win the men’s 800m title in a sprint finish in 2:02.05. 

CPL Geoff Hanckel continued his good recent form with a silver medal in the men’s open triathlon in 2:05.11, agonisingly just 18sec behind the gold medallist. The men’s 20-24 bronze medal went to OFFCDT Benjamin Monaghan from Canberra in 2:16.21.