Nigerian in Stawell Gift

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NIGERIAN speedster Bola Lawal wants to join Australian Joshua Ross and Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa from Madagascar as the only men to have won the Stawell Gift from scratch.

“That’s the dream of every athlete (to win off scratch),” the 32-year-old Viewbank-based Lawal said yesterday.

“It’s not going to be easy. I’m just going there to do my best.”

Lawal is no stranger to the big stage.

He was a member of Nigeria’s bronze medal 4 x 400m team at the 2004 Athens Olympics and ran at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Now Lawal’s focus is on shorter sprinting.

He won the Ballarat and Burramine Gifts off 2m and 1m respectively and was a finalist at Maryborough and Wangaratta this year.

He wasn’t as successful in Sunday’s 70m sprint at St Bernard’s, finishing third in his heat.

The backmarker in the 120m $40,000 event at Stawell, Lawal said he was confused by the concept of handicaps.

“I don’t really understand the meaning of the handicap,” Lawal said. "If you want to win Stawell, you have to gamble.

"The best doesn’t win the good competition like Stawell.

"You can’t just say, ‘This is the person who’s going to win’. I stand a chance of winning.

“There’s a lot (of people) to beat. It’s not just a local competition.”

Lawal has been training in Australia since November, initially under 1991 Stawell Gift winner Steve Brimacombe but now under veteran Garry Hennessy.

He will try to beat his personal best of 12.47sec off 1m, which he set at Burramine.

Next on the agenda are Nigeria’s Olympic trials from April 17-19, the African Championship in Ethiopia in early May and, if he makes the team, meetings in Europe in June and July.

“I’m doing everything just to get myself prepared for the Olympic Games,” Lawal said. "It’s not going to be easy to go out there in (the) Olympics unless you have good quality training.

"I know it is a little bit different for me running on the grass because I’ve never done it before I came to Australia. But it’ll help me compete against the best in the world.

“If I go to the Olympics I’m definitely going to think about Australia.”

Hennessy said Lawal was easy to work with.

“He knows how to do it,” he said.

“Hopefully by mid-April he’ll be ready to go 100 per cent.”

Beijing may be Lawal’s goal, but his love for Australia runs deep.

He met his Australian wife Rosalia at a Crown casino cafe during the Commonwealth Games.

He juggles 15 hours of training a week, with part-time work cleaning in Geelong.

“If you want something you have to punish yourself,” Lawal said

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Sunday 23 March 2008

Stawell faithful fire on day two

With all of Stawell waiting in anticipation for tomorrow’s running of the semi-finals and final of Australia’s richest footrace, the Australia Post Stawell Gift, today was an opportunity for those athletes who make the annual pilgrimage to the Northern Grampians to participate in one of Australia’s great sporting events.

With Tamsyn Lewis, who has made thirteen previous appearances at Stawell, a late withdrawal from the Endura Lorraine Donnan Women’s 400m due to pulling up sore from an intensive training session, it was left to Australian 400m champion Lauren Boden to run as the backmarker in the heats.

Boden ran strongly off her mark of 10m to finish a close second to Emma Poynton in the fourth of five heats.

“It’s hard running from the back because it feels like you aren’t making up any ground,” said 19-year-old Boden, who thoroughly enjoyed her debut experience at Stawell.

The fastest heat winner was Stephanie Mollica, whose winning performance of 52.78 seconds off 17m was virtually equivalent to her personal best of 55.28 seconds off the full distance.

A new generation of athletes relished the opportunity to become part of the rich history of spending the Easter weekend at Stawell, with the running of the Norton Ford Boys 100m and Workco Girls 100m for athletes under 17 years of age.

Ballarat local Conor Nunn, 13, took out the boys event, while 15-year-old Melinda Olden from Bendigo won the girl’s race, describing her first appearance at Stawell as ‘excellent.’

In contrast to the youth competing in the junior events, the Veterans’ and Women’s 1500m saw three generations of the same family competing: former Australian 1500m champion Dean Paulin, his father Ted and daughter Emily. Their combined experience was not enough for the well-timed run of Corina Kapusta, who took the lead with 150m to go to take victory.

The gruelling 550m metre Stawell Times News WH Earle Handicap had athletes contesting both their heat and final today. The extended sprint produced exciting action with the frontmarker Alan Dinsdale being swamped by the rest of the field 25m from the line and backmarker Robert Garland swooping to victory.

Lana Cridland ran to an emphatic 35m victory in the RetireInvest Victory Restricted 1600m, a race open only to those athletes who are under 25 years of age and have not previously won a handicap race.

Edward Wear was the fastest heat winner of the Stawell Gold Mines Bill Howard 100m, Dustin Lockett in the Necropolis* Florist and Café Hank Neil Veterans 100m and Andrew Howell in the WHK Jack Donaldson 200m, with Australian 400m champion Joel Miburn and 2006 Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles finalist Brendan Cole scoring closely contested wins in their heats.

  • I LOVE IT,:stuck_out_tongue: A NECROPOLIS SPONSORING A RACE FOR VETERANS. THEY’RE GETTING IN EARLY BECAUSE THEY CAN SEE THE FINISH LINE LOOMING ! eek:

The action continues tomorrow with the semi-finals and final of the 127th running of the Australia Post Stawell Gift. A live telecast of the action will be shown on Network Ten from 2pm – 4pm.

Monday 24 March - Australia Post Finals Day

11am – 4pm – Central Park, Stawell