Beatrice Faumuina (© getty images)
Biography
The first New Zealand woman to win an IAAF World Championships title, Beatrice Faumuina was born on 23 October 1974 in Auckland, New Zealand. Following her first major success at the 1992 Pacific School Games, Faumuina finished an excellent fifth at the 1992 IAAF World Junior Championships. Two years later she was a superb silver medallist at the Discus Throw at the Commonwealth Games aged 19 and ninth in the Shot Put.
Disappointingly she didn’t manage to qualify for the final of the IAAF World Championships in 1995 but two years later in Athens she struck gold to the surprise of fans world-wide.
Winner of the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games, the 2002 IAAF World Cup and seventh at the 2004 Olympic Games, Faumuina set eleven New Zealand Discus Throw records from 1993 to 1997 and won 10 national titles between 1993 and 2005.
Faumuina, Wing 200 of the Royal New Zealand Police and Nominated to the Oceania Board, was elected by her peers to the IAAF Athletes’ Commission at the 2003 Paris World Championships.
She was recently awarded the title of Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for her services to Athletics
