As she scans the rows of numbers, Anastasia Woolmer's mind is racing. She's creating pictures and patterns, turning the abstract figures into images that dance and sing, to commit them to her short-term memory.
The mum-of-three from Paddington, Queensland, has trained her memory since 2016 and won her first memory championship after just five months of practice.
"I always felt very average before this," Anastasia, 46, tells Woman's Day. "I dropped out of school at 15 to be a professional ballet dancer and considered myself to have an average memory. When I found out about memory sports, I thought I'd do it for fun."
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