She’d have to be Queenstown’s fittest granny.
Determined 69-year-old Anne Oliver, who only ‘‘took up fitness’’ when she was 64, performed outstandingly at a recent CrossFit comp in Rotorua — the Australasian Masters League Games.
Out of 13 women in the 65-plus category, she finished second and thinks she was the oldest woman competing.
Last year, she was also runner-up in a ‘fittest mum over 60’ comp, also in Rotorua.
In her latest event, the Remarkables Fit gym member competed in more than a dozen disciplines.
Though she’s very modest about her running, swimming and weightlifting ability, she still completed a 4km run and a 9-minute swim, weightlifting — clean and jerk and snatch — and lifted a 15kg dumbbell thruster 40 times above her head.
In several disciplines she set personal bests.
‘‘It was such a spin-out for me, I really enjoyed it,’’ she says.
Invercargill-raised Oliver lived in Australia for 42 years before retiring to Queenstown five years ago.
Sadly, halfway through construction of their retirement home, her husband passed away.
‘‘I just thought, I have to do something, so I took up fitness.’’
Beforehand, she’d been invited to go on a research vessel to Antarctica, which was to take in some kayaking — as a result, her children had introduced her to a CrossFit gym in Melbourne.
Arriving in Queenstown, she joined Remarkables Fit, a former CrossFit-affiliated gym.
‘‘Working out with young people is fabulous — they keep you young and they’re so encouraging and helpful, I feel like I have another family here.’’
She attends the gym, at least an hour at a time, virtually every day.
‘‘It’s taken me four years to get my toes to the bar, but now I can swing like a monkey.’’
Oliver’s also set up a rig in her garage and usually runs up her stairs.
She also plays golf, mountain bikes and walks her golden retriever, ‘‘but CrossFit is my love’’.
Mentally it’s also ‘‘really good’’, she adds.
