Discus And Hammer Throw Champs—

Daughter Teaches Mom; Both Win Gold At Nutmeg Games

By Andy Hutchison

It is not uncommon for a parent to teach their child a sport. Standout track and field competitor Rachel Taback, now in college, and her mom Jacqueline Taback, however, recently flip-flopped the standard teacher-student practice. The younger Taback taught her mom the skills needed for the discus and hammer throws to the point they both now compete at a high level.

Newtown’s mother-daughter — make that daughter-mother — tandem, after several weeks of practice, went out and showed the competition a thing or two by winning gold medals (two each) at the Nutmeg State Games at Veterans Memorial Stadium in New Britain, on August 1.

In her first career track meet, Jacqueline not only won gold medals in the 55–59-year-old age group in the discus and hammer throws, but also set Nutmeg Games records, which go back to 2003, for women ages 50–-59.

“It was a great thrill,” Jacqueline said.

Rachel had a thrilling day of her own, and not only because she got to see her mom win. Rachel won gold medals in her division (15–18) with throws of 130-02 feet in the discus and 135-03.50 feet in the hammer.

Learning The Ropes

“It started out as a mother-daughter thing at first,” Jacqueline said of beginning to learn to throw with Rachel back around Memorial Day.

Soon enough, Jacqueline not only had her sights set on competing at the Nutmeg Games, but began to believe she could have tremendous success. “When I actually started learning how to do it, I set my goal on breaking the record,” she said.

The fact is, Jacqueline had no competition in her age group this summer, but used past competitors and record-holders as her competitive-edge motivators. “I was competing against all of them in my mind,” she said.

Guaranteed first-place, it was a question of how well Jacqueline would perform in her first meet. The numbers speak for themselves. Her discus distance was 80 feet, easily topping the old record of 69-9 which was set a year ago. Jacqueline’s hammer distance toss of 78-04 feet broke the old record of 74-06 feet, which stood since 2006. Jacqueline’s dad, Roland Harris, Jr, of Hartford, was a state champion discus-thrower in high school, she said. Girls’ track was not offered during her high school days, so Jacqueline never had an opportunity to try her had at the throwing events her daughter picked up at Newtown High. She had played volleyball for 22 years, but winning medals and setting records in the field events was an entirely new experience for Jacqueline.

“I never won anything. I never won a championship,” she said.

Rachel had. She became a two-time state champ and top-five-in-New England discus thrower at Newtown High School and realized the family throwing genes may not have skipped a generation. Rachel asked her mom to try the discus and hammer throws (the latter of which she started only this past season in her first at Division I Northeastern University in Boston).

“She taught me how to do it and I practiced up at Fairfield Hills,” Jacqueline said. “Every week she gave me something new to work on.”

Rachel taught her mom first how to throw a discus from a standstill and, eventually, how to throw from a half-spin to increase the distance.

Jacqueline said she had not thrown the discus or hammer (a metal ball, essentially a shot-put attached to a wire) as far in the 1,000-plus throws she made in practices leading up to the meet as she did on championship day. She attributes her meet-day success to adrenaline. “I was just really pumped. I was really excited — my daughter was there,” she said.

“It’s really amazing what adrenaline does for you,” Rachel said. “I was really impressed.”