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• Born 1898
• Australia/New South Wales

Holly Mace became the first Australian woman to set a world record in athletics when she ran a time of 12.0 for 100y at Manly in 1914.

This time equalled the world's best shared by two American women and Mace continued to dominate Sydney amateur sprint events for the next four years.

In 1918 the women's association began to wane and Holly Mace retired from competitions.

Holly Mace began competing in athletics around 1913, at the age of 15. A women's amateur athletic association had been formed in Sydney and a number of clubs had began to recruit members.

Later that year, Mace began to win handicap races against better credentialled and older women. It may have been this improvement in form, rather than her young age, which resulted in her being barred from competing in the NSW 100y championship in December 1913 (won by the star women's athlete of the time, Muriel Eacott).

Over the next six months Mace began to dominate sprint races in Sydney.  In May, she recorded a fast time of 12.5 for the 100y at the Camden Sports, but a faster time was yet to come.

Running at Manly, a month later, Mace recorded a world amateur women's best of 12.0 to win her heat of the amateur women's handicap 100y.  She was the only scratch runner in the field and, in the final, she just failed to catch Hilda Cairns, who clocked 12.0,

Writing in the sports newspaper, 'The Referee', the president of the men's athletics association Richard Coombes (who was an official at the meeting) wrote that the day was 'favoured by delightful weather, hot and sunshiny with no wind".

He also commented, "The scratch girl, Holly Mace is unquestionably a splendid runner and her 100y in 12s equals the American record which as far as I know is also a world's best for amateurs. Mace got a bad start in the final or she might have been first instead of a yard by Miss Kearns (sic) who is a fast runner for a girl also."

To prove her time was not an aberration, results from 1914 show Mace recorded another six performances of 12.5 or better.  Representatives from the NSW men's amateur association usually officiated at these meetings, so the standard of time-keeping in Mace's races should be rated as highly as that of men's athletics in Australia at the time.

In December 1914, Mace won a series of races (50y, 75y and 100y) to decide the 'First Ladies Amateur Sprint Championship of Australia'.  She easily beat Mrs. Drennan over all distances and was awarded the £10 shield to commemorate her achievement.

Mace, slight in stature, was not much of a trainer and preferred not to practice too much.  She continued to win most amateur sprint races in Sydney over the next few years, usually racing against her main rival Hilda Cairns, but could not improve her world's best time.

In 1918, at the age of twenty, Mace seemed to retire from athletics. At the same time, the NSW Women's Amateur Club, also came to an end.  Mace married in 1921.

PERSONAL BESTS				PROGRESS - 100 Yards

50y 	 6.8 Manly	22/06/14	12.0	1914
75y	 9.0 Sydney	24/02/17	 -	1915
100y	12.0 Manly	06/06/14	12.6	1916
					12.2	1917

The above biography is a basic profile. As soon as I have time, the more detailed bio will replace this page.

An unofficial, non-profit, just-for-fun, page but © 1995-2003 by Graham Thomas