The 36-year-old from Winmalee bounded and sprinted her way to four gold and two silver medals at the Oceania Masters Athletics Championships in Townsville recently.

Running alongside athletes from New Zealand, Cook Islands and Tahiti, Ranell competed in six events: her favoured sprint treble of 60, 100 and 200 metres, the 100 metres hurdles, long and triple jumps.

She snatched gold in all of her track races and two silver medals in the jumps — pipped at the post by an ex-Olympian from Polynesia.

Victory was all the more sweet considering Ranell had won these events at the last Oceania Championships in New Zealand two years ago, and was keen to defend her titles.

“I was hoping to run fast at this meet and thankfully that’s how it turned out,” said Ranell. (In fact, she was the fastest female in the sprints across all age groups.)

“Townsville in August was lovely and warm, clear skies and clean air, so that helped a lot with the racing. The winter months are usually our off-season due to the cold so this was a nice change.

“It was a very friendly meet, as all Masters meets are, and it was great to make new friends from all over the Oceania region. One of the benefits of Masters Athletics is that we get to travel to places that you wouldn’t normally go to.”

Her next chance at another passport stamp will be in 2010 when the event moves to Tahiti.

At the World Masters Athletics Championships in Italy last year Ranell finished a close fourth in the 100m dash and won a silver medal in the Australian 4x100m relay. She helped the team set a new world record in the same event earlier this year at the national titles at Blacktown.

Ranell is also our current Blue Mountains Athlete of The Year.