A LOCAL athlete has made a remarkable comeback from injury, winning gold at the 2015 Athletics Victoria Country Championships two years after recovering from a back injury.
Bethany Oliver, from Ultima, won first place in the Womens’ Under 20s javelin throw at the Victorian Country Championships held in Bendigo last weekend.
The 18-year-old, who is about to begin Year 12 at St Mary MacKillop College, was competing for the South Bendigo Athletics Club at the tournament.
Oliver says she surprised even herself to take out first place.
The win was just Oliver’s second in the country championships, and she has already won a number of others in the state championships.
It has all been quite a remarkable achievement for Oliver, who has had to make comebacks from a back injury and three lots of knee surgery.
“Well, I was injured for 18 months, but if you don’t include that, I’ve been training probably for about five years,” she said.
“In the last two years I’ve definitely gotten a lot more serious and tried a lot harder just to see how far I could actually go.”
Oliver has received a lot of support along the way, having been trained by two people — her coach at South Bendigo, Peter Barrett, and father, Rowan Oliver.
Rowan says his daughter is in good hands training under Barrett.
“Peter is really great,” Rowan said. “He gives his time freely and we come home and follow up on what he tells us.”
“She’s been coming back very slowly because she’s had some knee injuries over the years, and she’s just getting to the stage now where she’s just really starting to be competitive again.
“Her training with me is pretty basic because we’re out on a farm but thankfully for javelin you don’t need a lot of facilities.
“We’ve got a bit of a track made up there for her to run on and throw on.”
Rowan says he is very proud of his daughter, even though sometimes he hasn’t been surprised by her accomplishments.
“It’s funny in some ways, you sort of go away to these competitions and she comes away with a medal, and you think, that’s not bad.”
“But then when you actually sit down and think about it, it’s a pretty good achievement for a country girl to go down from the Mallee and bring away a first place from the country championships.
“And the championships are a great thing, you’ve got people there from absolutely all of Victoria.”
As for Oliver, her recovery mission is nowhere near complete.
She has her eyes set on winning gold in the national championships in March.
To do this, she needs to place in the top three at the state championships in Melbourne on February 13.
Leading into the future, she’s not quite sure what her long-term goals are, though.
“I mostly just want to finish Year 12 at the moment, trying to get the balance right with training and everything.
“When the season’s over, I’ll go into the open age group — I won’t be in the juniors anymore and that’ll definitely be a challenge for next year.”
