Kelfit athlete Olivia Attard was crowned Female Distance Athlete of the Year at the recent Victorian Athletic League awards night. Photo: Luke Hemer/Stawell Gift
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Luke Hemer
The huge success of the Seymour Running Club and Kelfit program continues to grow, with a star athlete among those honoured at the recent Victorian Athletic League awards night.
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After a spectacular season that saw her dominate the 800m and 1600m distances, Olivia Attard was crowned ‘Female Distance Athlete of the Year’, beating three other finalists to the title and adding yet another accolade to her growing trophy cabinet.
It caps a remarkable season for the Kelfit gun, who became the first squad member to claim two sashes in a single meet at the Shepparton Gift, cruising to victory in both the 800m and 1600m finals.
The history-making didn’t stop there either, as Attard returned to the Stawell Gift in April, effectively the VAL’s grand final, to defend her 1600m frontmarkers title, which she did rather comfortably to claim a rare back-to-back victory on the biggest stage.
The Stawell win was made all the more impressive by the fact that Attard had been taken back a further 35 metres by the handicapper compared to her 2024 victory, yet put in an astonishing display of tactical nous and hard running to win by almost seven full seconds, a relative age across the mile.
Ian Porter, Cooper Lubeck and Hayden Anderson all claimed sashes at the Seymour Gift, which was named ‘Meet of the Year’ by the Victorian Athletic League.
It wasn’t only individuals that took out the gongs, either, with the Seymour Gift, which returned to Kings Park in December 2024 for the first time in over 20 years, acknowledged by the VAL as the ‘Meet of the Year’.
The Seymour Running Club couldn’t have dreamt of a better result for the gift’s return, which saw three sashes won by home competitors on an extraordinary day out.
Sprinter Hayden Anderson set the crowd alight with victory in the 70m open race, claiming his first sash since returning from injury to kick things off for the Kelfit crew, before a stirring Cooper Lubeck triumph — by a tenth of a second — in the 550m open really got the party started, with the huge crowd hoisting Lubeck skyward in celebration.
But the best was perhaps saved for last, with Ian Porter conquering all-comers in a nail-biter over 300m to be crowned champion of the world’s richest masters race, making a desperate throw at the line to claim the sash and cap what was an incredible comeback gift for the Seymour Running Club.
Lubeck was also nominated for an award at the presentation night, with his run in the Seymour 550m open up for ‘Male Performance of the Year’; however, he was edged out for the win.
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