lit a candle 40m agoRan into her at the 1979 World Cup meet, some American assistant coach with a dozen questions, and she just stood there answering every one like she wasn't in the middle of her own warmup. Never forgot that.
Their story
Penelope Elizabeth Gillies, known throughout Australian athletics as Penny Gillies, was a dual Olympian, five-time national 100 metres hurdles champion, and one of the country's most influential sprint and hurdles coaches. Born Penelope Elizabeth McCallum in Sydney on 20 July 1951, she died in Sydney on 10 September 2026 at…
Penelope Elizabeth Gillies, known throughout Australian athletics as Penny Gillies, was a dual Olympian, five-time national 100 metres hurdles champion, and one of the country's most influential sprint and hurdles coaches. Born Penelope Elizabeth McCallum in Sydney on 20 July 1951, she died in Sydney on 10 September 2026 at the age of 75 after a battle with cancer, leaving a record that stretched from the Melbourne-era women's hurdles tradition into a long career mentoring the next generation.
She entered the sport when Australia was a world power in women's hurdling and learned under trailblazing female coaches June Ferguson, Nancy Atterton and Betty Moore. As a junior she shone in pentathlon and the then 80 metres hurdles, winning national junior pentathlon titles in 1968 and 1969. In 1969 she took senior national silver in the 100 metres hurdles behind Pam Kilborn and ahead of Olympic champion Maureen Caird, then won Pacific Conference Games silver in Tokyo. At the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh she finished fourth in the 100 metres hurdles, matching the bronze medallist's time, after also starting the pentathlon.
At the 1972 Australian Championships in Perth she won the 100 metres hurdles title and reached the Munich Olympics, where she contested the hurdles and ran in Australia's 4x100 metres relay that finished sixth. After a mid-1970s break for family life and Achilles injuries, she returned as the country's dominant female hurdler, adding national titles in 1977 and then consecutively in 1979, 1980 and 1981. She represented Australia at World Cups and captained the team at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, again reaching the hurdles heats. Her personal best of 13.10 seconds came at the 1980 Olympic trials in Sydney.
After retiring from competition she built a Level 5 coaching career in sprints and hurdles while working as a teacher at Pymble Ladies College, St Joseph's College Hunters Hill and Arden Anglican School, and earlier as a Little Athletics development officer. Athletes under her guidance included international sprinters and hurdlers such as Steve Solomon, Bella O'Grady, Abbie Taddeo and many others. She served as a national team coach or official on more than twenty occasions across youth, junior and senior teams, including three World Championships, three Commonwealth Games and an Olympics as an official, and helped guide gold-medal Commonwealth 4x400 metres relays in 2002 and 2006.
Recognised with the Australian Sports Medal in 2000, life membership of Athletics NSW (2007) and Australian Athletics (2010), and the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours, she later became an inaugural mentor in Australian Athletics' High Performance Coach Mentoring Program. Australian Athletics remembered her as a contributor of the highest order whose coaching ethic carried forward the women who had coached her. She is survived by her husband Les, their son and daughter-in-law Andrew and Catherine, and grandchildren Charlotte and Jack.
Biography adapted from Australian Athletics Vale (Brian Roe, 14 Sep 2026); Wikipedia; Olympedia; Commonwealth Games Australia; UTS Northern Suburbs Athletic Club; Australian Honours. Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“There was one theme that shone more brightly than any other during the more than 50-year involvement in athletics of Penny Gillies... it was coaching.”
Brian Roe, Australian Athletics Vale, 14 September 2026
“Australian Athletics farewells a contributor of the highest order in myriad capacities.”
Australian Athletics Vale tribute
Photos
3Penny Gillies, Australian Olympic hurdler
by People Forever
Penny Gillies-McCallum, Commonwealth Games Australia athlete portrait
by People Forever
Australian Athletics Vale tribute image for Penny Gillies OAM
by People Forever
That tracks. Everyone who worked with her says the same thing.