Stunning Start For New Shearing Record Bid

World shearing record challenger Catherine Mullooly is well ahead of the required pace in her bid for a new solo women’s eight-hour ewes record at coastal sheep and beef station Nukuhakari, west of Te Kuiti.

Ending the first two hours and heading for morning tea at 9am, she had shorn 116 and maintained a good quality rating of 10.25, comfortably under the threshold of 12, according to a judge at the woolshed after the first official end-of-run count-out.

The tally was 21 more than shorn by Amy Wilcox in the 7am-9am run in setting a new record of 386 near Pahiatua on Sunday, and at the current pace, despite the struggle against some sheep described by onlookers as “stroppy”, the 34-year-old Mullooly is heading for a tally close to 460, possibly more than the current nine-hour record of 452.

The second run is from 9.30-11.30am, and the afternoon runs 12.30-2.30pm and 3-5pm.

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