Bayler's in her golden years

Tiny Wanganui athlete Francie Bayler with the seven medals won at the Oceania Masters Track and Field meeting in Bendigo, Australia, last month. Photo/Stuart Munro

DIMINUTIVE Wanganui athlete Francie Bayler is an enigma.

While in track and field events Bayler predominantly competes against her own age group, on the hockey field she tackles all ages.

The surprise is that's she is 73 and about to click over another year in April.

In her secondary school days, a youthful Bayler was a Wanganui rep hockey player and continues today as a regular for Collegians in mainstream competition, combining that with weekly matches for Castlecliff in the seven aside twilight league.

During her representative hockey days, her coach's wife was a track and field athlete and enticed Bayler into that code. She has combined the two ever since.

In late November last year, Bayler came back from the North Island Masters Track and Field meeting in Whangarei and by her own standards the event was not as memorable as most.

But in recent weeks, she was back to her medal-winning best at the Oceania Masters Track and Field in Bendigo in Australia, returning home with four gold, two silver and a bronze for a tally of seven.

"Our performances in Whangarei were nothing special but Bendigo was pretty good," Bayler said yesterday.

Her specialities in track and field are the triple and long jumps and sprint distances. She returned from Australia with golds in the 4x100m relay, the 60m dash and the triple and long jumps, silver in the 100m and 200m sprints, and bronze on the 4xmedley event.

Bayler still gets excited about both track and field and hockey, but her medals certainly do not sit gathering dust in a trophy cabinet at home in Wanganui.

"My grandkids have quite a few. They like playing with them and most of the others are in a box somewhere."

And there are a considerable number of masters medals earned since she entered the class in 1992.

"We had been playing hockey in Alice Springs in 1992 and I noticed there was a big track and field masters tournament coming up. I hadn't planned returning, but I did and I've been competing at masters level ever since.

"The best ever was four years ago in Tahiti, during an Oceania meeting. I had just entered the 70-74 age group and won the lot, except a silver in a relay won by another Kiwi crew. I can't remember how many gold medals but it was more than Bendigo," Bayler said.

Her performances over the years continues to impress her husband David.

"Look at her, she's only 4 foot 11 and three quarter inches. I call her the Flying Flea. She's never really had any serious injuries either. I think her worst was when she was umpiring a hockey game, when she got knocked out and broke her collarbone," he said.

Bayler trains at least an hour or so a day, three or four times a week combining that regime with once weekly twilight hockey to keep in trim. "Twilight hockey is social and we played a team of 15-year-old boys last night and got beaten. We knew we would get beaten but we made them work for it," she said.

Track and field will take a back seat in the coming weeks, with the focus on her next big event coming up in March.

"I'm getting ready for the masters hockey in Wellington next month."

And there no sign of retirement just yet.

"I turn 74 in April and still feeling pretty good. I'll probably carry on until I have to stop and as you get older things happen, I guess," Bayler said.