Gary John Minihan
Gary Minihan is a former Australian sprinter who specialised in the 400 metre events.
Gary began training with the Mentone Athletics Club from Year 9 after being spotted by the coach when competing in the APS athletics meet. Prior to this he ran on natural ability.
Gary ‘fell into’ running the 400 metre sprint in Year 12 as Athletics Captain. He traditionally ran the 100 metre and 200 metre sprints but no one else would run the 400 metre, so he did it. The 400 metre sprint is often recognised as the hardest event as it is a ‘long distance sprint’ – you go flat out all the way. When he competed at the APS athletics meet he won and a new chapter of history began.
After a successful career at BGS, Gary went on to study for a Bachelor of Economics (Accounting) at Monash University.
Gary was a member of the Australian Athletics Team from 1981 to 1987, and is the most successful track and field athlete BGS has ever produced being the only one to have competed at Commonwealth and Olympic levels.
At the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games Gary won a bronze medal in the 400 metre and a silver medal in the 4 x 400 metre relay.
Gary finished fourth with the Australian relay team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The team included Bruce Frayne, Darren Clark, Gary Minihan and Rick Mitchell, and ran a new Oceania record time of 2:59.70 minutes. The record still stands today.
Coming back to ‘nothing’ from the Olympics was hard – Gary had reached the pinnacle in his sport, finished his degree and felt an enormous emptiness. Fortunately he soon moved to Canberra both training and working as an accountant with the Australian Institute of Sport for two years which he remembers fondly. Gary retired from athletics in 1988.
In the 25 years since Gary finished competing he has coached and mentored up-and-coming athletes with Athletics International, Glenhuntly Athletics Club and at BGS where Gary was the Accountant and Assistant Business Manager from 1998 until 2012.
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