THE weight of the big wait has lifted off the shoulders of western suburbs sprinter Shaun Hargreaves.
The 23-year-old broke a two-year drought to emerge victorious in the 120 metre Maribyrnong Gift at Pennell Reserve.
“It’s a bit of a relief,” he said. “It’s been a while in the making to get across the line first again.
“It’s a relief to go through the heats and have one of the quickest times and then actually get through to the final and win that.”
Hargreaves beat his brother Matthew across the line.
The Werribee resident said he felt comfortable on the track, feeling no pressure, despite Matthew bearing down approaching the line.
“I stayed relaxed all the way through and couldn’t sense him coming,” Hargreaves said. “Apparently I had him by a metre or so.”
Hargreaves puts his success down to being relatively injury free, but his summer was hampered by constant knee soreness.
“It’s been around for a few months now,” he said.
“It’s still giving me a little bit of pain, but it’s so much better than it felt.
“I’m almost pain free and it allowed me to run properly.”
Hargreaves ran off a handicap of 7.25 metres and won in a time of 12.58 seconds.
Jessica Payne started with an 11-metre handicap and crossed in 14.49 seconds to win the women’s gift.
120m Maribyrnong Gift: Shaun Hargreaves. 120m women’s: Jessica Payne. 70m open: Shaun Hargreaves. 120m U20: Nadeen Brown. 300m womens/vets: Matthew D’Astoli. 400m open: Chris Roche. 1600m open: James Deane. 70m backmarkers: Morgan Deane
