Pam Dillon, Sport Education Coordinator, Tennant & District Times

A Tasmanian athletics icon is helping to grow a love of sport among Barkly school students.

Jocelyn (Millar) Cubit, an Upper Primary Teacher at Epenarra School, south-east of Tennant Creek, boasts an impressive athletics resume, having represented Australia at three successive Commonwealth Games.

Regarded as one of Tasmania’s finest track and field athletes, Jo won a string of national titles in the 1980s.
Her event of choice was the Heptathlon, in which seven athletic disciplines are rolled into one competition.

Agile and adaptable, she topped the country in Long Jump and won another national title as a member of Tasmania’s first winning 4 x 400m relay team. Jo was voted Tasmanian Athlete of the Year seven times to gain entry into the state’s Sporting Hall of Fame.

Still the holder of several Tasmanian athletics records, Jo is now devoted to inspiring remote school students.

“I became a teacher because I love kids and I love seeing them succeed at something they have worked hard to achieve – in the classroom or on the sports field,” she said.

“ I’d also like to help them to develop a love of running and recognise that, in athletics, there is an event for everyone.”

This article appeared in the Tennant & District Times, 26 March 2021.