NATHAN DEAKES WON WORLD CUP 20KM BRONZE MEDAL THIS MONTH.
Their son has brought home sporting gold, and now the family of Olympic walker Nathan Deakes has struck gold of a different kind - on a slot machine.
Doug Deakes and his wife Elizabeth were playing their favourite five cent Queen of the Nile slot machine at Crown Casino for just 10 minutes when the millionaire dollar bonus symbol appeared.
Mr Deakes said he could not believe his luck.
``I walked in, put the card in and sat down. Ten minutes later I was one million dollars richer,’’ he told Channel Nine TV.
The Deakes are the parents of Commonwealth Games medallist Nathan, who won gold in the Manchester Commonwealth Games 20 km walk and 50 km walk, and represented Australia in the Sydney Olympics.
Now they can afford to be in Athens to see Nathan compete in the Olympic Games 50 km walk.
They also plan to buy a house in Queensland to retire in.
``We’ll live it up a little bit, where before you’d run on a shoestring now we can just do want we want to do,’’ Mr Deakes said.