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.

In a welcome return to form Tom Burbidge the 2010 Stawell Gift winner blasted the field off 13m to take victory in a time of 21.05 in the 200m on day 2 of the Devonport Gift carnival.

His main opposition came from back marker and training partner, Brendan Cole, who ran superbly off 8m to come second in 21.22 seconds.

In the Women’s equivalent Lauren Boden showed great sprinting form to explode around the bend and take victory off 8m in a fast time of 23.55. Melissa Breen running off only 3m also ran extremely well to break 24 seconds (23.98) to finish 3rd.

It was a very successful day for tme squad who now moves to Burnie on new years day for the last carnival of the  Basslink series.

Happy New Year to all.

Melissa Breen’s victory off scratch in the Women’s 70m was one of many highlights for the MattyB DEPT on a beautiful evening at the Devonport Gift in Tasmania.

Giving 5 metres head start to her closest rival in the final Breen exploded out of the blocks and quickly made up the difference on most of her competitors before taking the race in a photo finish with LJ Hilditch (6m) in an extremely quick time of 8.44 on grass.

In the feature Devonport 400m Gifts Lauren Boden backed up her victory in La Trobe with a high quality second placing behind World Junior qualified local girl Abbey De La Motte. Running off 7m Boden ran an outstanding time of 53.58 and importantly looked super strong in the final stages of the race.

In the men’s race the MattyB DEPT was represented by Stawell Gift winner Tom Burbidge (18m) and Commonwealth Games 4 x 400m gold medalist Brendan Cole (9m) in the final after other members Ollie Wurm (15m) and Luke Storta (24m) finished 3rd in their heats but did not get through to the final on times.

In the final is was Cole that would perform best for the squad. Coming into the final straight Cole as backmarker made his move with young local boy Max Waldron. Both surged strongly to the line but were unable to catch two of the front markers with Daniel Reeves (32m) taking the victory in 46.38 from Edward Gates. Waldron (16m) was 3rd with Cole (9m) gallant in 4th place. Despite a slow start Burbidge finished off quite strongly to take 6th place in the final.

Day 2 of the Devonport will focus on races over the 200m distance.