Albertans love to be #1. We like to be the best in Canada, if not the world.
Enter Rachel Andres from Olds. Andres is now a world record holder because she threw it out of the park (almost) at Throws Fest 2023 at the Glenmore Athletic Park in Calgary.
Throws Fest is a three-part throwing meet series intended to offer para and non-disabled athletes the chance to compete before the season ends.
The previous throw world record was set by another Canadian athlete, Marie-Josée Le Jour, in 2015.
Le Jour set the record for the Women’s 35 and over in the throws pentathlon at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Lyon, France. Le Jour scored 4,114 points, beating the previous record set more than a decade earlier in 2001.
The throws pentathlon consists of five events and includes four Olympic throwing events: hammer throw, shot put, discus throw, and javelin throw, plus the weight throw.
At this year’s Throws Fest, Andres beat Le Jour’s world record by seven points. The impressive accomplishment was a long time coming.
In 2022, Andres attempted to set a throws pentathlon record at a masters pentathlon in August.
She tried again in September, but bad weather and a hungry baby hurt her performance. The rain made throwing difficult, and Andres’s baby needed to be nursed between most throws since she refused a bottle.
“When she is hungry, I just do what warmups I can and attempt to keep loose between competition throws while nursing. I hand her off or put her down quickly to go throw and then resume nursing her,” Andres told Mountain View Today.
Andres ended the September event 500 points short of the world record.
Heading into this year’s event, things weren’t looking good. A thick fog made it almost impossible to throw in and made the hammer ring slippery. During the hammer throw and shot put events, athletes had to endure a bitter cold.
“We experienced a full gamut of Alberta weather in the span of the four-hour event,” Andres told Town and Country Today.
Thankfully, the fog cleared by the time the discus event went live. The sun also made an appearance during the javelin and weight throw events.
Alberta weather is ruthless, but that didn’t stop Andres from breaking the world record. Celebrating her victory, she reflected on her accomplishments.
“I’ve been top five or six in the world all that time, so this is kind of been something I’ve been wanting to go for, but I haven’t been able to go for it until the event was actually offered for my age group. It starts being offered once you hit 35,” said Andres.
Andres has competed in pentathlon events since she was in college. But when she isn’t throwing, she works as the social media manager and junior development administrator for the Caltaf Athletic Association in Calgary.
She also coaches high-performance throwers and elite athletes.
But Andres isn’t all work and no play. She is an experienced painter and a talented faux finisher.
A faux finish is a painting technique that gives a surface an antiqued or distressed look.
So whether she is finishing a door or finishing off a world record, we look forward to seeing what Andres can accomplish next!
