BJ Cole has again provided the crowd with an amazing display of 400m running to take victory in the Albury Gift off the backmark of 7m. Cole made a decisive move down the back straight to get himself into striking distance and then showed great strength to hold off the rest of the field to claim victory by 2 metres.

This victory comes off the back of his victory in the Burnie Gift over the Christmas period in Tasmania.

“Today’s gift was a fantastic carnival and I really felt good out there today. I know I am biased but I think my training partner Tom Burbidge did a great job in setting up and running the Albury Gift.” Cole was the ambassador of the Albury Gift that has been put back on the calendar by 2010 Stawell Gift winner Tom Burbidge.

Cole will now firmly shift his focus towards running the Olympic qualifying standard in the 400m Hurdles with races in Hobart, Perth and Sydney in the next 3 weeks leading into the Olympic trials on the 2-4th March in Melbourne.

In other squad results Kevin Matthews took victory in the frontmarkers 70m and also the Vets/Women’s 300m. He was also third in the vets 120m

Rachael Carnegie also made the final of the 300m and finished 8th in the Women’s Gift final.

Brandan Galic ran strongly for 4th in the 70m final off the back mark of 2.25m He also ran 2nd in the Backmarkers final with training partners Brendan Matthews 3rd and Ollie Wurm 6th in the same race.

Luke Storta and Jesse Matthews made the final of the Men’s 400m to finish off a great day for the MattyB DEPT.

Footage here including Men’s Gift final won by Joel Bee

Congratulations also to Jesse Matthews for taking victory in the 70m at the Wangaratta Gift meeting the day earlier.