Huffer and Rilen take deepest and tightest Golden Gift in history
2008 BHP Billiton Nickel West Elite Mile, Leonora Golden Gift, Leonora, Western Australia
The 2008 Leonora Golden Gift will long be remembered for the desperate finishes that were required to take the biggest pay cheques in Australian middle distance running. Huge crowds flocked to the remote desert community to celebrate the annual Foundation Day long weekend and were enthralled by entertainment that included the Golden Gift Athletic carnival, horse race meetings and a vast array of performers.
The feature events, the male and female elite miles, had 16 and 12 participants respectively and heats were required on Saturday evening to trim the fields down to 8 participants for Sunday’s final. In the Woman's heats, UK's Linda Spencer showed good form to comfortably take heat 1 from 2008 Australian 1500m champion, Nikki Molan, while World Junior Championships selectee, Bridey Delaney edged New South Wales' Emma Rilen in heat 2.
The scene was set for a tight race between these four athletes in the final and they didn't disappoint. From the outset, distance runner Spencer pushed the pace to try to test her opposition. Despite her best efforts, few cracks appeared in the tight lead group until Molan sprung to life with 400m to run and immediately dropped Spencer and Delaney. Rilen comfortably followed the change in pace and as the athletes rounded the final turn it was clearly a race in two. Down the final straight and the pair fought neck and neck with neither athlete conceding ground. Molan appeared to have edged in front before a desperate final 10m effort saw Rilen steal a memorable victory by the narrowest of margins.
In the men's heats, the second proved the faster and had 5 athletes through to the final as compared to 3 from the first heat. The form of 18 year old Victorian, Craig Huffer, was ominous in heat 1 as he comfortably kicked away from David Byrne (NSW) and Brett Halls (NSW). In heat two, a very narrow margin separated Ben St Lawrence (NSW), from WA's Sam Burke and Victorian Mark Tucker followed by Chris de Boer. In the finish, all 8 athletes qualifying for the final were separated by less than 4 seconds.
The final started at a pedestrian pace as the tension mounted and the crowd anticipated the first move of the race. It took until the bell before Burke surged to the front and triggered a rapid acceleration in tempo. All the athletes appeared to respond but his move was soon countered by Huffer and then the gaps started to show. The youngster, en route to the World Junior Championships in July, piled on the pace and never relented as he cruised away from Tucker and WA's 800m star Chris DeBoer to take an inspiring victory in 4.09.
In other events, 2008 Australian 100m silver medallist, Jodie Henry won both the 120m and 600m events and was also awarded the annual Steve Moneghetti Medal, accompanied by a $1000 cheque, to assist her in her future athletic endeavours. In the men's 120m, former Australian 400m champion Ben Offerins won from Felipe DeCastro Cruz, who also finished 2nd in the 600m behind 800m specialist Peter Mondello. In the masters, Loretta Wesley continued her remarkable record at the Gift by taking the 120m, 600m and mile.