Professional athletics, like most of the sporting world, took a while to catch on.
Female sport is a hot topic. With the AFL women’s league, Women’s Big Bash cricket and a revamped national netball competition grabbing prime time TV coverage, women in sport has taken center stage.
From an athletics perspective, society has come a long way since the heady days of 1967 when Katrine Switzer ran the Boston marathon. With women banned from running, Switzer was attacked by race officials in an attempt to stop her finishing.
Switzer made it to the end and in the process ended the ludicrous thinking that females couldn’t run 42 kilometers.
Long the domain of men, professional athletics in Australia has seen very little in the way of female participation. Until the mid-90s, it was rare to see a female run.
Long-time stalwart of the Victorian Athletic League, Barry Milligan, was forced to think long and hard to find any reference to females starting in the sport.
“There was a lady by the name of Nicky Coughlan that ran for a while in the 80s. This of course is only in Victoria, I have no idea what may have happened in the other states”, Barry said.
“As best I know, Anne Fiedler was the first to win an open race at Stawell, when she won the Frontmarkers 400m in 2001. Kendra Hubbard was also the first to win an open Gift (Melbourne Gift) in late 2008”.
Whilst Anne Fiedler and Kendra Hubbard continue to race on the circuit, the retired Nicky Coughlan is considered the pioneer for women running professionally in Australia.
She was an oddity. Lining up against the men in the late ‘80s, she was a lone female flying the flag for women in pro sprinting.
“I trained with Neil King and a lot of his group ran pro. I asked whether I could try”, Nicky said.
The 57 year old teacher has fond memories of the sport, with this year’s Stawell Gift marking the 30th anniversary of her first race at Central Park.
“I first ran at Stawell in the ‘87 season and I loved it. I was on the limit and didn’t do very well but it was a great weekend”.
Not wanting to become the pin up girl for feminism in pro running, Nicky is matter of fact about the sport and her involvement.
“I must admit I didn’t really think too much about it. I just wanted to run”, she said.
“Most of the men were really good but I did have a few issues with some runners who thought I shouldn’t be running, it was nothing serious”.
“I didn’t have a lot of success against the guys but I did win a heat of the 70 meters at Rye which was a highlight”.
Coughlan breached the frontier that was the male dominated Victorian Athletic League, and whilst not celebrated, clearly led the way for women racing pro today.
“At first the only women you would see at race meetings were the girlfriends or wives of the athletes. When more girls started racing they introduced women’s races, so I didn’t have to run against the men. I ended up winning a few ladies races and it was a great time in my life”.
Women’s races were finally introduced into the Stawell Gift program in 1989 with female sprinters forced to run on the novice or “alternate” track, and for a pittance.
Things have changed. This year, 131 women, racing in 17 heats, bolted down the premier ‘Gift’ track. A long way from the lone female who took to the blocks in 1987.
The Stawell Gift often throws up great stories. It’s been the same for over 135 years and 2017 was no different.
You only need cast your eyes to Men’s Gift winner Matt Rizzo as an example. Perhaps even Kendra Hubbard coming second in the Open 200 metres might take your fancy. What about the win by evergreen Evan King in the 100m Masters as a terrific tale?
All three are great yarns no doubt, but one story from the 2017 Stawell Gift stands out.
Wangaratta’s Anna Pasquali is a mother of three. Married to the sport, and husband Wally, she epitomizes professional athletics.
Tall and slender, with a classic running style, the 38 year old balances life as a mother and a career as a physiotherapist, with professional athletics.
I am sure she won’t mind me saying, that amongst a generation of teenagers that now dominate the sport, she is almost a dinosaur. With 18 professional wins in a 20 year running career, she has had her share of success, a win at Stawell had eluded her though.
With little time for anything else, Anna is popular, easy going and always up for a chat. She has been trying to crack a win at Stawell since 1997.
Stawell, the small quant town in country Victoria, has a habit of leaving the bitter taste of disappointment to most who race. Until this year it was the same for Anna.
“I have two losses I still struggle with. In 2004, I crossed the line with Kimberly Meagher in the final of the women’s 400m. I knew it was really close. Immediately the TV crew came over to me, put the sponsors hat on my head. Wally was there with my training squad congratulating me. Within a minute, they had decided Kim had won it, so off came the hat and away went the TV crew”.
“The other big disappointment was of course running second to Grace O’Dwyer in 2015. In some ways I shouldn’t be, but how could you not be somewhat upset in the first ever 120m women’s at Stawell, where equal prizemoney was at stake”.
2015 was the first time that women had parity, and with prizemoney increasing from $6,000 to $60,000, competition was fierce.
For Anna, her cool reflection of the race is probably the best indication of why she is so well liked on the circuit.
“If I was going to come second to anyone, I’m glad it was Grace. Wally and I both have the upmost respect for Peter O’Dwyer, her father and coach”.
Two decades in the making, when she finally breasted the tape first in the women’s 400 metres, it was stylish, classy and downright inspiring.
“To win this is like a dream come true. After 20 years and eight Stawell finals, I had finally reached my goal”, she said.
Trained by Stawell Hall of Famer, Greg O’Keeffe and in an event that takes a touch over 50 seconds, it was a dominant performance.
Running off the mark of 40 metres, in a race that went perfectly to plan, Anna took control early and finished almost two seconds ahead of second place runner Kim McDonough.
The Pasquali family, in many ways, sum up professional athletics.
Anna met her husband Wally in the sport, and his rather romantic courtship, proof that this was the picture perfect pro couple.
“We met on Easter Saturday 2002 when a girlfriend and I ran at Stawell. In typical 23 year old style we had nowhere to stay. Wally and his mate Clint Youlden, also a pro runner, had a spare room in their two bedroom cabin. So we bunked in with them, and the rest is history”, she said.
It was a pro running love story with a fairy-tale ending.
“He proposed to me three years later on good Friday 2005, out the front of the Central Park gates”.
Now with three kids in tow, for the popular couple, it has been a match made in heaven.
Almost like a rite of passage, the Stawell Gift is about family and tradition.
Like the Pasquali family, generations make the trek to Stawell every Easter to celebrate a sport engrained in Australian culture. For Anna, its life.
“An Easter without Stawell is like a Christmas without Santa! We love the build-up, the excitement, the betting, the Friday night drill hall and the memories we have accumulated since Wally and I met in 2002”.
“Now the kids get to race, that only adds to our excitement”.
With the first page written by Nicky Coughlan, Anna Pasquali is another chapter in the growing story about female professional sprinters in Australia.
Things have changed for females in the sport no doubt, and with a long apprenticeship served, Anna, like Nicky Coughlan before her, has earned a place in Stawell Gift history.
