HAWKS Nest has lost highly-respected Commonwealth Games target rifle shooting gold medallist and Navy veteran Stan Golinski.
A popular Peter Sinclair Gardens RSL Life Care resident in the Great Lakes region, Golinski passed away on 24 May, just three weeks shy of his 92nd birthday.
Stan is best remembered for his achievements as a competitive target rifle shooter.
His greatest triumph was clinching an individual gold medal for Australia at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Fullbore Rifle Queens Prize Open competition.
The legendary Golinski etched his name in folklore – becoming the first Australian to win the event at either an Empire or Commonwealth Games – with a record score of 396 points.
In another proud moment at the Games, he backed up to claim a silver medal in the Teams event while pairing up with James Corbett and posting another record score of 583 points.
At the height of his target rifle shooting career, Stan was a fierce competitor.
He competed at four World Championships in Venezuela, Moscow, Italy and Spain, and was a member of 13 state teams and 16 Australian teams.
Stan won six Queens Prizes including two National Queens and was also the first and only Australian to win the Canadian Governor-General’s Prize – the Canadian Open Championship – with a record score.
In the 1988 Bicentenary Palma Match held at the ANZAC Range in Sydney, Golinski and his coach Reg Rowlands demonstrated their class and poise by top scoring.
It was another proud honour for the Hawks Nest serviceman.
Born and educated at Marist Brothers in Brisbane, Stan joined the Royal Australian Navy at the age of 17 where he rose to the rank of Petty Officer Clearance Diver.
He was coxswain of Clearance Diving Teams Numbers One and Two and also filled the billet of Chief Clearance Diver on HMAS Sydney during the Vietnam War.
Stan served on HMAS Australia, Condamine, Anzac, Vendetta, Yarra, Melbourne and Sydney, and was awarded the General Service Medal – Clasp Borneo plus Malaya Peninsula; the Australian Service Medal – Clasp Korea plus Far East Strategic Reserve; Logistic Support Medal – Vietnam; Admiral of the Fleet’s Commendation (FOCAF.); Australian Active Services Medal – Clasp Vietnam and Malaysia; and Pingate Jasa Malaysia.
Stan met his wife Joy at the Journalist Club in Sydney on New Years Eve 1968 and worked as a diver for an oil rig until 1975, and then for Sydney’s Prince Henry Hospital as Officer in Charge of the Hyperbaric Chamber, until his retirement in 1998.
Upon leaving the Navy, he was able to devote more time to his target rifle shooting passion.
Stan’s late wife Joy described him as “a very deep thinker and a man who would readily help anyone that was willing to listen.”
He’ll always be remembered as a respectful, kind-hearted man but when it was needed, was as brave and fierce as a lion.
You could find no better man to be in the trenches with than Stan Golinski.
Stan is survived by his daughter Judy.
By Chris KARAS
