An 87-year old former childhood sprinting prodigy from Young who used to race against Marjorie Jackson and hasn’t done a competitive race for 75 years is set to lace up the spikes once again in the Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast.
Barry Hazelgrove remembers fondly as a 12-year-old boy taking on a teenage Marjorie Jackson in local athletics meets just before she became famous.
The Lithgow Flash came to prominence when she defeated Dutch legend Fanny Blankers Coen in a series of match races in Sydney before winning four Gold medals in the Commonwealth Games at Auckland in 1950 then double Olympic Gold in the 100m and 200m at Helsinki in 1952.
“Marjorie wasn’t really that famous back then - she was about 18 when she won the Commonwealth Games and she won so often it was just nothing out of the ordinary,” Barry said.
“In Sydney, I was there when she came back to the Sydney Sports Grounds and we had a big reception after her victory.
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“We used to run scratch races at Lithgow Athletics club, she would give me about a 20-metre start. I was only about 11 or 12 years old but I was fast.
“I won pretty much everything and was Riverina Sub Junior champion, then Riverina Junior champion the next year.
“I won so many ribbons and banners that my mother sewed them together and made a double bedspread out of them.”
Soon after, Barry’s family moved to the coast where he joined the Bellambi Surf Club at Corrimal and used to tear up the sand, winning all the beach sprints.
“I never joined an athletics club after we moved to the coast, I played first grade rugby league as a centre and winger for Corrimal,” he said.
“One time the Sydney clubs were looking for a first grade spot for a teenage Reg Gasnier to get some game time at Corrimal and the club said, ‘sorry, no we already have a centre - Barry - he was the Under 18 Best and Fairest last season."
Barry made the Illawarra Under 18 representative team before a broken ankle during a work accident forced him out of the game for three years.
He moved to Dapto where he was coached by Balmain premiership player Allan Fitzgibbon, father of current Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
He took up harness racing at Dapto and spent over 30 years training and racing horses around the country.
Barry never returned to running but admits he had some potential that was never quite realised.
“Maybe if we had stayed at Lithgow I could have achieved something,” he said.
“I had a grandfather who bought me a pair of spikes so he thought I had some potential.
“But we never stopped anywhere long. My Dad worked on the railway so we were always moving around the country from town to town when he got
transferred.
“The last running race I did would have been 40 years ago, but it’s really 75 years since those days sprinting against Mariorie Jackson.”
So at 87, the running bug finally returned when a relative suggested he run the Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast, scheduled for November 2024.
Barry had always kept very active walking and riding on an exercise bike but wasn’t sure if he could still run at all, when he spotted a running track while on vacation recently and decided to give it a crack.
“A hundred metres looked a bloody long way and I wasn’t sure how far I would get but I ran the whole way and it was easy,” he said.
“So I ran another 100, then another 100, then another, and on the last one I did 21 seconds.
“I was just so excited, I couldn’t believe it, I just felt so good. I had never run a hundred metres like that in 40 years.”
Barry has now entered the 60 metre sprint and the 100 metre sprint at the Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast in November, where he will compete in the 85-89 year category.
His story inspired Emal Hakikat, who is currently renovating the historic Millard Centre in Young, to sponsor Barry by offering him essentially a blank cheque to buy anything he needed.
“I wanted to buy him the whole kit,” Emal said.
“I gave him an unlimited budget, in fact I wanted him to look like Cathy Freeman, wearing the whole jump suit, but all he wanted was a basic pair of running spikes, that’s it.”
So Barry drove to Peter Wynn’s Sports Store at Parramatta and bought the shoes.
Emal was inspired to help Barry after seeing him regularly going around town raising funds for the local golf club.
“He’s remarkable, his energy, his drive, his passion and his enthusiasm to do this,” he said.
“I see similarities in what we are doing - I am restoring the oldest building in Young and Barry is doing the same - he is bringing life back. It’s fantastic.”
Barry isn’t sure if more sponsors will be lining up to sign him after the Masters Games.
“That depends how fast I can run,” he said.
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