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WITH Olympic buzz in the air, there is little surprise that the competition at the Woolworths Stawell Gift this year will be especially fierce.
In the men’s competition, established young gun Jack Hale from Tasmania will be among the favourites to take to Central Park this Easter long weekend.
One of the most exciting young talents in Australia, boasting numerous records to his credit, Hale is coming to Stawell off the back of breaking his own state open record at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships in Perth recently.
This year, he will be starting from 3.25m, a full 1m better than 12 months ago. Hale will be hoping to take his Stawell appearance one step further this year and taking a place in the Stawell Gift final. He was the youngest semi-finalist at Stawell last year.
The 17-year-old will have stiff competition this year, however, lining up against New Zealand’s fastest man, Joseph Millar, who has never been seen at the Stawell Gift before. He will also be starting off 3.25m.
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Mitchell Williams-Swain will start from the tight mark of 1m as he attempts to win the Stawell Gift for the second time. The backmarker first won the event in 2011 and was favourite going into the 2013 Gift final before a false start ended his chances of victory.
Joining Swain are two past Gift winners, Andrew Robinson (4.75m) and Matt Wiltshire (4.75m), with the latter making his return to running after recent injury setbacks.
Robinson and Wiltshire will be chased by last year’s favourite, Luke Houlihan who has been pulled back from his mark of 7.25m in 2015 to a more challenging 4.25m.
Houlihan ran second by 0.17 of a second in the 2015 Stawell Gift final after slipping at the start.
Trained by Brett Robinson, coach of last year’s winner Murray Goodwin, South Australian Jordan Caldow will be running off 1.75m. In front of Caldow will be Nigerian speedster Bola Lawal who will run off 2.5m. Former Jamaican sprinter and bobsledder Khan Marr will run off 3.75m.
Other notable athletes include Tjimarri Sanderson-Milera (5.75m) who was a finalist in the Woolworths Stawell Gift in 2015, and Liam Proccacino (8.5m) who recently claimed bronze in the 400m at the Australian Athletics Junior Championships.
The backmarkers in this year’s 2016 Woolworths Stawell Gift event are: Mitchell Williams QLD 1m; Jordan Caldow SA 1.75m; Bola Lawal VIC 2.5m; Andrew James McCabe QLD 3m; Jack Hale TAS 3.25m; Joseph Millar NZ 3.25m; Matt Carter VIC 3.5m; Jacob Despard TAS 3.75m; Khan Marr VIC 3.75m; Ryan Bedford 4m.
Backmarkers in the 2016 Australia Post Women’s Gift: Melissa Breen VIC 0m; Hana Basic VIC 2m; Maddie Coates VIC 3.5m; Elly Graf NSW 4m; Kiara Reddingius WA 4m; Lauren Wells ACT 4.25m; Kendra Hubbard VIC 4.5m; Angela Byrt VIC 5m; Holly Dobbyn VIC 5m; Grace O’Dwyer VIC 5m.
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