Sally Mene

Sally Mene (née Flynn) was a sensational schoolgirl javelin thrower who went on to represent New Zealand at two Commonwealth Games.

She was born in December 1949, and took up athletics when she was 11 while attending primary school in Greymouth. She began throwing the javelin in 1962 and had a natural aptitude right from the start, shining in junior rep meetings between the West Coast, Nelson, Marlborough and Buller.

Sally had good sports genes. Her father was a fullback in the Canterbury rugby team and an uncle had played soccer for New Zealand.

She first won the New Zealand javelin title in 1965, having just turned 15. Athletics historian Peter Heidenstrom described her as New Zealand’s first genuine javelin talent since Stan Lay (who won the javelin gold medal at the first Empire Games, back in 1930).

Sally shone at many sports – she represented Canterbury at age group level at basketball, and had played rep netball and softball for the West Coast.

But athletics was her forte and happily she joined the Christchurch Technical Athletics Club. There she came under the coaching wing of the esteemed Valdy Briedis, who had a large squad of champions at the time, headed by Val Young and Marise Chamberlain.

Under Briedis’s guidance, Flynn, as she was then, improved quickly. When she successfully defended her national javelin crown in 1966, setting a New Zealand record of 47.47m (155ft 9in) in the process, she seemed a certainty for selection in the Empire Games team to go to Kingston that year. Somehow she was overlooked, though she was ranked 3rd in the Empire at the time – perhaps the selectors felt she was too young for such a major meet.

Sally attended Villa Maria College, where not surprisingly she was outstanding in athletics. At the 1966 school athletics champs, she found javelin was not on the schedule so she entered eight other events and won seven of them!

Briedis helped her improve her technique in other events and she became a good discus thrower, though the javelin and the discus are not usually coupled by athletes. Later, as her talent flowered, she tried the pentathlon, which comprised five events and was the women’s equivalent of the decathlon at the time.

Flynn was chosen to compete in the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where she finished 7th in the discus with a best throw of 45.86m and 8th in the javelin, with a best of 39.94m. In January 1970, she’d thrown 49.44 in the discus, a distance that would have earned her the bronze medal in Edinburgh. If she’d got near her New Zealand record in the javelin she’d also have been pushing for a medal.

Later in 1970, Sally married the bubbly and popular Mene Mene, a Samoan she’d met at the Technical club four years earlier.

By 1974 the Menes were a well-known family unit and they both competed in the Christchurch Commonwealth Games. Their first son, Chris, was 16 months old by then. Sally competed in the javelin and discus again. This time she threw 40.44m for 11th in the javelin and 47.10m for 7th in the discus.

The Menes had a great time in Christchurch, even being invited to the Royal Yacht Britannia for a luncheon hosted by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. “We were a married couple competing, which was quite unusual, and that’s the reason we were invited,” said Sally.

She recalled with pride the thrill of competing at the Games. “We love our city and representing it at the highest level was amazing, Walking into the stadium with the huge number of people there [35,000 at the opening ceremony] and in our own country… I was quite overwhelmed!”

Sally eventually won nine New Zealand titles – six in the javelin from 1965-73 and three in the discus from 1970-74.

After Sally finished with top-level sport, she continued competing in masters events.

She was a sports co-ordinator at St Margaret's College. Both Mene and Sally became very involved with the Rawhiti Golf Club. Mene became President of the Club for more than 10 years and Sally became the Ladies Club Captain.

She and Mene took a great deal of pleasure in watching their three children forge their own sports careers. Their daughter, Bernice, played 78 games of netball for New Zealand, captained the national team for two years and as a goal defence was one of the greatest players ever to represent New Zealand. Bernice is married to New Zealand test cricket star Dion Nash.

One of Sally and Mene’s sons, Chris, represented Samoa in the discus in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The other son, Nathan, represented Samoa in the high jump at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games and played for the New Zealand under-20 basketball team.

Sally liked to say: “Once upon a time I was an athlete. Then I became the wife of Mene Mene. Then I became the mother of Bernice, Chris and Nathan!”