Penny Hunt

Penny Hunt (née Haworth), born in Timaru in 1948, was one of New Zealand’s best and most durable sprinters.

She competed in three Commonwealth Games and one Olympics, and but for the whims of selectors, might have added to that list.

When she was four, her family left Timaru and settled in Waipukurau for a few years, and that’s when she began running. The family moved to Masterton when she was nine and Penny joined the Masterton Athletics Club. While at Wairarapa College, she began to attract attention as a promising young sprinter.

Haworth, as she was then, attended Teachers College and then Victoria University, running for the University club on the grass at Hataitai Park and then on the wind-swept track at Evans Bay. She won her first national title, over 220 yards, in 1966, and after that featured regularly in the record books. She was New Zealand University Sportsman of the Year in 1968.

In all she won 15 individual national titles – the 100m in 1969, 1970 and 1975, the 200m in 1966, from 1968-71 and then again in 1975 and 1976, and the 400m in 1968, 1971, 1976, 1978 and 1981. That’s an impressive time span for a sprinter and she was up against such talented speedsters as Brenda Matthews, Wendy Brown, Gail Wooten and Kim Robertson.

In Wellington, she was coached initially by Barry Rait and later by her husband, John Hunt.

She went very close to making the New Zealand team for the 1966 Kingston Empire Games, but wasn’t selected despite having run the qualifying time. Again, she missed selection for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics when she might easily have got the nod.

Penny ran for New Zealand at the 1969 Pan Pacific Games in Japan and made the team for the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. With limited funding in those days, she went straight from a New Zealand winter to the northern hemisphere summer, and without a sprint coach in the team.

In Edinburgh, Hunt, as she was after her marriage, ran 11.7s in her heat and 11.9s in her semi-final, but missed a place in the final. In the 200m, she ran 23.9s in her heat and 23.9s in her semi-final, earning a spot in the final. She improved marginally with a 23.8s effort, but could manage just 8th.

At the 1972 Munich Olympics, competing in the 400m, Hunt ran 52.82s in her heat to comfortably book a place in the quarter-finals. There her 52.66s though quicker, gave her a 6th placing, with four to move into the semi-finals. She was a little unfortunate – in two of the four quarter-finals, her time would have been quick enough to advance.

At the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, Hunt, returning to the sport after the birth of her oldest boy, Darren, six months earlier, again contested the 400m. She ran 55.2s and 55.0s to book a place in the final, where her 54.3s placed her 7th in a high-quality field.

In the 4 x 400m relay, Shirley Somerville was lead runner, followed by Sue Gukilau, Lorraine Tong and Hunt. Their time of 3min 37.5s earned them a 5th placing.

Hunt was overlooked by the selectors for the 1976 Montreal Olympics team, despite having posted a qualifying time, but was named in the 1978 Commonwealth Games team to Edmonton.

This time she ran in the 200m and 400m. In the shorter race, her heat time of 24.15s was not quick enough for her to advance. In the 400m, she ran 54.53s in her heat to move into the semi-finals. There her time of 54.26s wasn’t quick enough to book her a spot in the final.

In the all-time New Zealand lists, Hunt’s best time over 200m of 23.67s, run in 1976. places her 18th. In the 400m, where she was the most competitive internationally, her 52.66s is still the 5th fastest more than half a century later.

Though she continues to run successfully in masters athletics, Hunt became a leading coach. In 1986, she was the sprints/hurdles coach for the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games team. Three years earlier she’d been sprint relay coach at the World Games in Canberra. Hunt was a national sprints and hurdles coach for nearly 10 years.

She has had a full teaching career, beginning at Naenae Intermediate, then Naenae College, St Oran’s, Chilton St James for 20 years and Te Kura the Correspondence School for even longer.

In 1990, she wrote Run, jump, throw, which provided guidelines and activities for teachers, coaches and other junior athletics providers. The manual has been reissued several times.

One of her sons, Jamie, represented New Zealand with Andrew Brown in 470 sailing at the 2004 Athens Olympics.