Lauren Boden yesterday produced a scintillatiing final 40m to run over the top of race favourite Heidi McTernan to collect the $1100 cheque and sash.

Running from 2.5m (last year 3.25m) Lauren ran a very fast 13.70 seconds to claim victory by about 1m. Training partner Ramona Casey continued her great form to finish 3rd with Tarin Nevin also making her first final to finish 6th.

The other top story of the day was Melissa Breen running her second Commonwealth Games qualifier in the 100m. Despite finishing off a huge 2 weeks of training Melissa took advantage of the great conditions to run 11.48 (1.9w) which is another B qualifier. After running 11.46 on the 18th December this results shows some real consistency and she will be hoping for even quicker come Nationals in April. In the mean time Melissa plans to “have some fun” and enjoy racing during the domestic grand Prix meets at Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Click here to see Melissa race

In other results Grant Billingham celebrated is move to Canberra with a win in the Novice 120m and also finished 5th in the Men’s Gift final, 2nd in the skins and 3rd in the Backmarkers.  Coach MattyB also managed to finish 4th in the Final.

Luke Storta finished 4th in the 70m and Charlie Rutter also made it to the final.

Charlie’s breathrough moment came at the end of the program when he broke through for his first sash taking out the Open Skins events. Taking on most the squad including Jesse, Grant, Jaryd, Luke and Tarin the old man showed the young pup a clean pair of heels and they couldn’t run him down.

Jaryd Cowley ran a much improved race in the 300m finishing second in a great time of 32.79. Jesse and Tom were on his tail finishing 4th and 5th. Kevin also did well to make it through to the final.

Squad Results from the Canberra Gift

Best Results

Lauren Boden 120m Women’s Gift winner

Grant Billingham 120m Novice winner

Canberra Gift Squad Winnings: $2625

Yearly Squad Winnings:  $17010

Total Squad Sashes for 2009/10: 10

Individual Money Winners

1. Luke Storta $8865
2. Ramona Casey $2850
3. Lauren Boden $1850 
4. Stephen Sheppard $700
5. Melissa Breen $500
6. Patrick Elliott $455
7. Derek Collinge $290
8. MattyB $260
9. Michael Rutter $225 
10. Jaryd Cowley $180
11. Jesse Matthews $105 
12. Tom Burbidge $65
13. Kevin Matthews $40

Individual Results (money earning results only)

Mondo Track, Tailwind, warm conditions. Rain after heats and wind drop.

Lauren Boden

• 120m – (2.5m) 13.70 1st Final ($1100)
• 100m Backmarkers (7.5m) 11.11 2nd Final ($80)

Ramona Casey

• 120m – (9m) 13.95 3rd Final ($200)

Tarin Nevin

• 120m – (11.75m) 14.18 6th Final ($50)
• 120m – (18.50m) 13.32 6th Final ($30)
• Skins – (8m) – no time 5th Final ($25)

Grant Billingham

• 120m – (8.5m) 12.40 5th Final ($100)
• 120m – (5.5m) 12.60 1st Final ($200)
• 100m Backmarkers (1.5m) 11.79 4th Final ($25)
• Skins – (scratch) no time 2nd Final ($80)

MattyB

• 120m Gift – (12.75m) 12.36 4th Final ($200)

Luke Storta

• 70m – (7m) 7.45 4th Final ($25) 

Michael Rutter

• Skins – (8m) 7.78 1st Final ($200) 
• 70m – (13.75m) 7.52 6th Final ($25)

Jaryd Cowley

• 300m – (19m) 32.79 2nd Final ($140)

Jesse Matthews

• 300m – (16m) 33.12 4th Final ($40)
• Skins – (0.75m) no time 4th Final ($25)

Tom Burbidge

• 300m – (13m) 33.13 5th Final ($40)

Kevin Matthews

• 300m (48m) 34.67 8th Final ($40)