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He might have missed out on the world record in shot put, but Wollongong’s Stuart Gyngell still broke the Australian masters record by 3.5 metres.
The 50-year-old, who competes for Athletics Wollongong, took part in the club’s monthly throws meet at Kerryn McCann Athletic Centre last Saturday.
He was attempting to break the masters 50 shot put world record of 18.45m, set by Germany’s Klaus Liedtke in 1991.
Gyngell’s best throw of 17.52m fell short but still broke the Australian M50 record by 3.5m.
He also broke the Australian M50 record in discus by 3m with a throw of 49.45m.
Athletics Wollongong president Phil Frkovic said in shot put terms, Gyngell had ‘‘absolutely smashed it’’ to better the M50 record by 3.5m.
‘‘It was outstanding. That’s a huge distance and for discus, three metres is a huge improvement as well,’’ Frkovic said.
Gyngell moved to Wollongong in January from the Central Coast and Saturday’s meet was his first in the M50 age group, where the weight of the shot and discus is reduced.
The multiple national open champion represented Australia at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, was the previous world masters champion in shot put and is the current NSW State Open shot put titleholder.
Gyngell holds M35, M40, M45 Australian masters shot put records as well as the M40 and M45 throws Pentathlon records.