Nadine Edwards has returned from the Victoria Police and Emergency Services Games with a swag of medals, entered as the only Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action athlete in the track and field section.
The Shepparton runner produced three gold medal-winning races, also taking home a bronze in the 4x100m relay to cap a great showing at the games.
Her performance was a follow up to topping the podium in the 2000m steeplechase at the Victorian Masters Track and Field competition, and it was a just reward for slogging it out in a big test of endurance.
“With my own performance, I was really happy because I don’t normally do that many events in one day,” she said.
“I didn’t get any personal bests, but I was happy with how I went.
“It’s a good, fun day out competing against the other agencies, and there’s a lot of banter and highly competitive people.”
Stacked up against a stiff field of competition, Edwards snared a gold in the 1500m run with a time of 6:40.17 in the 50-54 age category, backing it up with another gold in the 800m event in little less than three-and-a-half minutes.
She set a record in the 5000m run, blitzing past the finish line with a time of 23:25.04 to leave with another gong around the neck.
But she wasn’t done yet.
Joining three other runners from different departments to form a mixed team in the sprint relay, Edwards held her own against male opponents to return to the podium, albeit on a slightly unfamiliar step.
“We had a composite team for the relay that we threw together at the last minute,” she said.
“That was a bit of fun, but we were beaten on the day by two male teams; an all-male Victoria Police team who are always highly competitive and then the SES all-male team came second.
“We were pretty happy to pull in third with a mixed team.”
Though medals are what Edwards deals in, there’s another element to the games which draws her back for more each year.
“There’s always that good camaraderie and friendship which forms at these sorts of events, and this is the third year I’ve done the track and field,” she said.
“It’s really nice because you start to see people that you’ve seen in previous years.
“A lot of us who are older, sometimes we’re just happy to be doing what we’re doing, to still be able to run, jump or throw and do the things in athletics that we enjoy.
“It’s nice competing in your own age group, you’re not up against the 20-year-old whipper snappers so to speak. It’s a much more even playing field.”
With the athletics season mostly wrapped up for the time being, Edwards isn’t kicking her feet up just yet.
She’s lined up the Karratha City to Surf in her crosshairs, and will be training hard to produce another top result at the July event.