Penny Gray

Penny Gray started her career as a top middle-distance runner with Newstead Women’s Harriers and was selected for the 1980 Moscow Olympics in the 1,500 metres, but the US-led boycott prevented Australia, and Gray, from competing in Moscow. Gray was Australian champion outdoors at 800 metres in 1977 and in the 1979 1,500 metres, and set several Australian records.

After missing the 1980 Olympics, she turned to hockey and competed for Australia at the 1984 Olympics in that sport, the first player from Tasmania on the Australian women’s national team at the Olympics. She had played hockey for Tasmania on the U18 team in 1973, and made the senior state team from 1976-86, captaining the team in 1981 and 1986. Gray, later Penny Dunbabin, worked as a teacher and executive officer of the Southern Primary Schools Sports Association. She was inducted into the Tasmania Sporting Hall of Fame in 1987 and was an inaugural member of the Tamar Churinga Hall of Fame in Launceston in 2013.

Personal Bests: 800 – 2:03.93 (1979); 1500 – 4:17.09 (1979).