Shearer toughs it out to set world record
‘‘IT was tough at the end’’ but Gore shearer Megan Whitehead battled the afternoon blues to set a world shearing record.
She bettered Emily Welch’s 13year solo women’s ninehour record of 648 lambs after shearing 661 near Gore yesterday.
Whitehead (24) said the last session was the hardest.
‘‘[The lambs] were quite kicky and I was struggling mentally, trying to stay positive and get over it.’’
She was counselling herself in a bid to keep calm.
‘‘Forget about that one, get another one,’’ she told herself.
‘‘There’s no way in hell you’re giving up.’’
She was delighted with the record.
‘‘I’m so stoked it’s all over and I’m so happy with what I’ve done.’’
The attempt started at 5am and in the first run Whitehead shore 153 lambs, which ended up being the best run of the day.
She was not feeling physically tired from the effort.
‘‘My body feels great.’’
Before the attempt, she aimed to average 46 seconds a sheep to end with a total of 700.
As it turned out she averaged about 50 seconds a sheep.
The attempt was organised by her father, Quentin Whitehead, who said there were a couple of times in the afternoon when he wondered if the record would be broken.
‘‘The brain’s getting starved of oxygen ’cos she’s forgetting to breathe ’cos she’s trying to concentrate so hard,’’ he said at one point.
‘‘She dug very, very deep.’’ ‘‘Today, the lambs just went off and they were hard work,’’ Mr Whitehead said.
The Whiteheads were involved in breeding the lambs for the record attempt, which involved crossing a Snowline ram over Wairere Romney ewes to get the right type of lamb required.