Footage of Tasmanian Gift races now available

5 time national 400m Hurdles champion Brendan Cole has captured his first ever gift win taking out the prestigious Burnie Gift.

Running from 5.25m Cole took victory by a mere 3 thousands over local athlete Edward Gates with former Stawell Giftwinners Adrian Mott third. The time was a quick 12.13

After an lengthy wait as the officials studied the photo finish Cole and the MattyB DEPT  crew exploded with excited.

“Matty came over to me and thought I had won and I had a feeling a had got it on the line but when you announced me as the official winner I felt like a little kid in a candy store.”

30 year old Cole will now focus on securing a berth in the 2012 Olympic team for London.

“Victory today in this gift is an extremely positive way to start off what is a huge year for me. I will probably retiring at the end of 2012 so to finally win a gift is a great feeling.”

In other squad results Melissa Breen completed  a wonderful series of races to finish second in the Women’s Gift behind LJ Hilditch.

“To break 14 seconds off 0.25m is the fastest I have ever run on the grass so I just can’t wait to get on a track and run now.”

Tom Burbidge, Luke Storta and Lauren Boden all made their 400m finals with Tom finishing third.

The squad finished the 3 carnivals with 5 victories, multiple finalists and over $19,000 in prize money.

Thanks go to the TAL and in particular Rod Walker for his support and we look forward to coming down againnext year.