Townsville Sun Newspaper - 04.02.2009

Hollins smashed his personal best by 4.54 metres at the Queensland Open and U18 Track and Field Championships at Brisbane’s State Athletics Facility. The throw placed him second in the open category.  Hollins said his throw at the state championships last month put him in good stead for future events, and brought his ranking from 11 to three for open javelin throwers across the country.

Hollins’ athletics career began at school but stopped at around age 18. He picked the javelin up about a year ago and threw 64m on his first attempt and has made several life changes including changing his job to make training possible. Hollins trains twice-a-day six-days a week with a mixture of technique, fitness, weights and plyometrics training. Five other athletes from Townsville also competed at the Queensland Championships including Robyn Bennet, Anthony Craig, Matthew Bailey, Cara Bousted and Billy Bragg. 

Bennet won gold in the under 18 1500m final in a time of 4.50.89.

As the Track season competition draws closer Clayton urges people of all shapes, sizes and abilities to come along and give athletics a try. ``The beauty of doing a sport like athletics is that you can really see from an individual perspective how much you are improving on weekly basis,’’ he said.  ``It keeps you fit and healthy, helps you with goal-setting and so much more, so why not do this all in a fun and friendly environment. ``You are never too old to give it a shot, in Melbourne we have more than 1500 registered athletes over 30 years of age and athletes older than 90 years of age competing at Age Group Championship level.’’