For seven months she swore off caffeine, alcohol, bread and sugar and went to the gym six nights a week, all the while holding down a fulltime shearing job. She dropped from 68kg to 60kg, building more muscle on her lean frame. “I am the fittest I have ever been.” That said, she was “struggling a bit” in the last run on Thursday, with the lambs not always compliant. “I had to counsel myself mentally and I had Dad there keeping me positive . because if one kicks, and you are losing seconds, you have to forget about it and just keep moving forward.”
Press Release – Shearing Sports New Zealand
Megan Whitehead mid-way during her shearing record, with father and clockwatcher Quentin Whitehead looking on from the next pen. Photo / Supplied. A sprightly Southland shearer has today smashed a womens world record by clipping 662 lambs in nine
Megan Whitehead mid-way during her shearing record, with father and clockwatcher Quentin Whitehead looking on from the next pen. Photo / Supplied.
A sprightly Southland shearer has today smashed a women’s world record by clipping 661 lambs in nine hours in a woolshed near Gore.
Tipping the scales at just 60kg, standing just 1.7m tall and shearing and despatching the average 34-36kg lambs at an average of less than 50 seconds each, 24-year-old Megan Whitehead was chasing the previous record of 644 set in 2007 by Waikato shearer Emily Welch.
As she closed in on 5pm the crowd in the shearing shed chanted “Megan, Megan, Megan” and gave her a standing ovation as the last shorn lamb went down the chute. She gave her father, Quinton, a big hug after putting down the handpiece. He s been with her all day supporting her. Jills Angus Burney, who set the original record of 541 lambs in January 1989, and later set a further record shearing 614 has been in Gore watching Whitehead’s attempt. She hosted Whitehead when she set the four-stand women’s world record of 2066 lambs in 2020. She ll smash it, Angus Burney said at the afternoon tea break.
He said the quality of most haircuts completed with shearing handpieces usually required finishing touches from a barber or hairdresser. However, a tassel left behind at the end could have meant the red-light of disqualification had it been part of the actual Speedshear, but Fagan removed the final piece of outstanding growth soon after. The hair is now heading for the Little Princess Trust in the United Kingdom, which provides human hair wigs for child cancer sufferers who have lost their hair.
Paul Green/Stuff
Fagan retired from competitive shearing in 2015 with 642 open-class wins [file photo]. Donations from the night and through the Givealittle page will be given to Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand.