Back to work on Monday for Mullooly

This is the moment Matawai’s Catherine Mullooly cut the wool off the 387th sheep to break the world record on Wednesday near Te Kuiti and then powered on from there to 465. Her mammoth effort was well supported with around 200 family members and others there to watch her perform an “amazing” feat. Picture supplied

Matawai mum of two, farmer and well-performed shearer Catherine Mullooly produced what Sir David Fagan described as a “brilliant” effort on Wednesday near Te Kuiti when she smashed the women’s world record for strongwool ewes.

She eclipsed the previous mark of 386 and blitzed her way to a new record of 465 strongwool ewes in eight hours.

In the aftermath of it all, sitting on the deck of her accommodation over at Piopio in the Waikato yesterday morning, she said she was “feeling really good.”

“I’m still a bit dusty from the ‘hydrating’ in the celebrations afterwards, but apart from that I’m feeling fine.”

Catherine said she was confident she could break the record.

“We had our own goals in mind and I definitely had faith in the training I have done.

“I felt like I was peaking in my training, and I had a couple of good days shearing at work in the days prior to Wednesday.”

Her record attempt drew around 200 people to the Nukuhakari Station woolshed.

“I couldn’t believe there were that many people there. I tried not to look around at the crowd, to be honest.

“It was a bit overwhelming and I had to keep my emotions in check.”

Catherine said it was not until the second hour of the third two-hour session that she started to feel it mentally.

“That was the mentally toughest part of the day.”

She said she owed it all to her trainer Matt Luxton from the UK.

“He does it all online. Matt’s trained a lot of people and has had a lot of success in shearing records. I had no cramps, no hydration issues, which he helped me with on the day. He was watching the live stream.”

Catherine said she had a really great team supporting her.

“There was a lot of experience in that woolshed and they all love the shearing industry.

“From the boys in my pen who are all outstanding shearers, to former world champions and record holders Tom Wilson and Alan MacDonald, who were standing alongside me all day.

“Also, my family and friends were just so supportive. I don’t have enough words actually for how supportive they were.”

Catherine goes back to work shearing over at Piopio on Monday, with an eye on the competitions coming up.

“I hope to have a good crack at the Golden Shears this year.”