Dual Olympian, Olympic coach and UTS Norths life member, Penny Gillies OAM has died after an 18-month fight with cancer, aged 75 years.

Penny joined Norths coaching panel in the 1990s and coached five Australian open champions in the100m hurdles and the 400m, and Olympic, Commonwealth Games, World Championship and World University Games representatives.

She guided the athletic fortunes of some of UTS Norths' best runners including 2005 World Youth Championship representative Charlotte Yeates, 2006 World Junior Championship representative Tristan Garrett, 2011 Junior Commonwealth Games representative Madison Gipson, 2017 World Relays representative James Gurr, 2018 World Juniors silver medallist Carley Thomas, 2019 World Championship representative Bella O’Grady and Matilda Ryan who won selection for the postponed 2020 World Juniors, champion sprinter Jess Knox, former club captain Danielle Cotterill (nee Senior), middle distance runner Corey Furminger and World Masters Championship medallists Jackie Bezuidenhout and Kylie Strong.

Penny also coached several Australian representatives from other clubs including Lora Storey, Joel Milburn, Steve Solomon, Jacquie Munro, Hayley Butler and Abbie Taddeo.

Penny’s international coaching appointments included being the Australian team's sprints and relays coach for the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games; 2002 and 2004 World Junior Championships; 2008 World Youth Championships; and 1997 and 2009 World Championships. She was an Australian team coach at the 2012 World Junior Championships and the 2017 World Relay Championships along with appointments at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games, 2014 Olympic Youth Games, 2015 World University Games and the 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 2021.

She was also head coach at the 2005 World Youth Championships which Penny described at the time as “the pinnacle of my coaching career”. “It’s a very prestigious appointment."

Athletics Australia named her the Junior Athlete Coach of the Year in 2019 and in 2024 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the King's Birthday Honours List.

Born on July 20, 1951, Penelope Elizabeth Gillies (nee McCallum) was a five times Australian Champion at the 100m hurdles and is one of the few athletes to have represented Australia in three decades. She was a silver medallist at the 1969 Pacific Conference Games Tokyo, going on to represent Australia in the 1970 Commonwealth Games.

She was a dual Olympian, representing Australia in 1972 at Munich and in 1980 at Moscow as athletics team captain. Penny also represented Oceania in the 1977, 1979 and 1981 World Cups. In 1980 Penny ran her personal best time of 13.10s for the 100m hurdles to become the second fastest Australian ever. More than 40 years later she is still in the all-time top 10.

As well as being a life member of UTS Norths, Penny was a life member of Athletics Australia and Athletics NSW.

An English teacher at several schools including St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill and Arden Anglican School, Penny was a Level 5 hurdles coach and Level 4 sprints and relays coach.

To her husband Les, also a UTS Norths member and former committeeman, their son Andrew and Penny's extended family and her current and former athletes, the club offers its sincerest condolences.

Compiled by UTS Norths historians Ron Bendall and Janet Naylon