Gibbons (35), a lecturer in nutrition and physiology at the Otago Polytechnic, has been appointed coach of the New Zealand youth team for the world championships in Bressanone, Italy, on July 8-12.
It is the fifth time Gibbons has coached a New Zealand team overseas. Her first venture coaching a New Zealand team was at the Oceania Games in Tonga in 1998. A year later she coached the under-18 team at the Oceania championships in Guam and was at the Youth Olympics in Sydney in 2001 and this year.
The New Zealand team will have a warm-up meting in Brisbane on June 30 and July 1 before flying to Italy.
Gibbons has been in touch with the personal coaches of the 18-strong team to find out the athletes' needs as they prepare for the championships.
"I will also prepare lots of food at home so that my family doesn't starve," she said.
Gibbons has two children - Cole (4) and Jorja (3) - who regularly join her at athletics meetings at the Caledonian Ground.
Paul Gibbons, her husband, holds the New Zealand men's national and resident pole vault records with the 5.51m he jumped in 1992. He also holds the Caledonian Ground record of 4.75m, set in 2003.
Paul Gibbons was seventh at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 1990 and competed at two world championships. He was 19th in Tokyo in 1991 and 20th in Athens in 1997. The pole vault has been the Gibbons family sport.
Paul followed his father, Kevin, into the sport as a 15-year-old when he lived on the Gold Coast in Australia.
Paul won 10 New Zealand senior pole vault titles from 1991 to 2002.
His father, who started his pole vaulting in Otago, won seven national senior titles between 1963 and 1970.
Megan Gibbons' mother, Joan, has also coached New Zealand teams overseas at the Oceania Games in Samoa in 2006 and Taipei in 2008 and at the Commonwealth Youth championships in New Delhi last year.
Megan comes from an athletics family with her brother, Craig, winning the New Zealand pole vault title in 2003.
Joan Merrilees (nee Atkinson) grew up in Kaitangata and competed in athletics until she was 16.
She then concentrated on netball and represented the Otago Country senior team.
