By Shelby Brooks
This year, Berwick racewalk superstar Bec Henderson has been around the world competing with the top athletes in her sport, most recently coming away with fourth place at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Although she narrowly missed out on a personal best time, Bec said she was thrilled with how she performed.
“I’m really happy – I don’t think I could have gotten a medal on the day but the two girls who got second and third I beat at World Champs in the 20km, but they were just a bit too quick for me in the 10km,” Bec said.
“They were on a few red cards so I was just waiting to see and make sure I was only a minute behind them so if they ended up in the pit lane for a minute I could come through and snag a medal.”
Bec was nine years old when she first competed in a racewalk event at Berwick Little Athletics.
She won the race, much to the surprise of herself and her family.
“I wasn’t very good at Little Aths, I just went to hang out with my little cousins so if I got second last in an event I was happy,” Bec said.
“I did the walk for the first time and I won it so that was pretty weird because I had never won an event at Little Aths before.”
As a fresh graduate of Berwick College, Bec earned the qualifying time in the 2020 World Juniors but due to Covid-19 the event was cancelled.
“I decided I can’t quit now because I didn’t get to go so I decided to train for the senior race instead,” Bec said.
After a year of training during Covid-19 lockdown, Bec was invited to attend a training camp in Thredbo in November 2020.
From there, things moved fast. Her coach thought she had a shot at the Tokyo Olympics that were postponed until July of 2021.
It wasn’t until four months before the Olympics that she completed her first 20km event but she ended up qualifying and then placing 38th in Tokyo.
“Competing in the Olympics was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Even with all the Covid-19 restrictions, it was still absolutely amazing and incredibly memorable to get put there and race,” Bec said.
Impressively, she competed at the Olympics while studying Biomedical Science with Monash University.
In the lead up to the Commonwealth Games this year, she placed second in the 20km nationals event, third in the 10km nationals event (with tonsillitis and a personal best) and second at the 10km Oceania event.
She then headed to a training camp in Seattle before competing at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene where she placed 20th.
The 10km racewalk in the stadium at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games was a unique experience Bec said she won’t quickly forget.
“It was really cool to have it in the middle of the day in the stadium and the crowd of 35,000 people for once because we don’t usually get that,” Bec said.
“When we walked out from under the stadium it was just so loud, it was very overwhelming.
“There were only eight of us in the race, all incredibly good, there was no one other than Jemima [who won gold] who was clearly ahead of everyone. Anyone could have placed 2nd or 8th.”
Bec is now focused on the World Athletics Championships next year in Budapest and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
She’s hoping to qualify in both the 35km and 20km events.
Her long-term goal is to make the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
