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Waterskier inducted into Sports Hall of Fame
World waterski champion Emma Sheers and champion racehorse trainer Bruce McLachlan were inducted into the Sunshine Coast Sports Hall of Fame at the University of the Sunshine Coast tonight (Thursday 12 November).
A special ceremony to honour the new inductees also featured the presentation of Certificate of Merit awards to long-time Sunshine Coast vigoro administrator Lorna Wright and to rugby league administrator Danny McGuire.
About 100 guests witnessed the unveiling of a revamped Hall of Fame display in USC’s Health and Sport Centre foyer, featuring all Sunshine Coast Sports Hall of Fame inductees since the ceremony was first held in 1991.
On accepting her award, Emma Sheers spoke passionately about the need to provide facilities in the region to encourage children to lead healthy, active lives.
Emma represented Australia in the sport of waterskiing for more than a decade from the mid-1990s. At the start of her career, she was twice crowned junior world jump champion before winning the world jump title in 1999.
By the early 2000s, there was no better female waterskier in the world. In 2001, Emma was the world slalom champion – a title she also captured in 2003.
She won the world championship in the jump discipline in 2003 and was named the International Waterski Federation's Athlete of the Year. She gained the Athlete of the Year title again in 2005.
Bruce McLachlan was Queensland’s leading racehorse trainer and had trained more than 3,000 winners in a career spanning 40 years.
The former Mt Isa police officer holds the record for 16 Metropolitan Training Premierships from the late 1970s until 2009.
Bruce built the Sunshine Coast’s most influential stables at Caloundra, opposite Corbould Park. From there, he reached the pinnacle of his career, becoming only the second trainer to produce the winner of the Magic Millions and the Golden Slipper double, the world’s richest races for two-year-old horses.
Bruce passed away suddenly, aged 67, on 3 June 2009.
— Terry Walsh