All heart … Jessica Farrugia leads the pack in the 400m novice final. 60461 Pictures: SARAH MATRAY
By Michael Esposito
WOMEN are starting to make a habit of upsetting the men on the Victorian Athletics League circuit.
Until last year, only one woman had won an open event at the Keilor Gift – Andrea Benton in the 1996 70-metre final. But then Katie Moore won the 70m open last year in what was an all-female top three, and on Saturday Queenslander Melisssa Howard held off the men to win the same race.
Howard, off a handicap of 11.5, pipped frontmarker Shane Buckingham (12.25) by .088 seconds to claim victory.
One of the most popular results at the Gift was Jessica Farrugia’s brave victory in the 400m novice event.
The Broadford girl, who trains with the Benny Tancredi stable in Coburg, held off her male challengers to claim a breakthrough victory.
The 17-year-old, running off a handicap of 80, edged out fast-finishing Lonain Burnett, who off a 29m handicap ran a brilliant race to get within 0.17 seconds of Farrugia.
It was Farrugia’s first win of the season. In her past 400m novice events, she has finished sixth, third, fourth and third.
Farrugia said the nerves really kicked in with 20m to go, when the commentator described the desperate charge coming from the other runners.
“I felt pretty strong, but I was worried that the boys were going to catch up though.”
North Sunshine’s Megan McMahon was flying the flag for Brimbank in the Billie Joe Petersen Memorial 120m women’s final, and while she didn’t win, she continued her break-out season with a narrow second behind backmarker Melanie Purkiss, of Chelsea.
McMahon, 19, won the 100m women’s final in Ararat on 12 February and has been a consistent finalist in sprints this season.
Crowd favourite Alexandra Bulic, of Brookfield, won a thrilling 400m women’s race ahead of Rochelle Kennedy and Taryn Fisher.
The talented runner started off a tough handicap of 18, just four metres in front of backmarker Stephanie Mollica, but timed her run exquisitely to cross the line in first place.
