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<\/p>\n
“Athletes do like winning their home events. I can’t say any of this was planned, things just panned out.<\/p>\n
“Not many athletes get to go back-to-back.<\/p>\n
“From my Castlemaine win, I got pulled back 15m. I thought I still had a chance, but I didn’t think I’d win.”<\/p>\n
Dual wins has filled Whitham with plenty of confidence ahead of Australia’s most prestigious professional running carnival at Stawell over the Easter long weekend.<\/p>\n
His second Stawell Gift Carnival, the in-form athlete will be looking to make up for a disappointing 2025 event, which was all but ruined by an untimely footy injury.<\/p>\n
“I was getting fit, but I played a footy practice match for YCW about three weeks before it and injured my heal and I couldn’t train,” Whitham said.<\/p>\n
“Three weeks doesn’t seem like much, but when you are taking about seconds in a race, it matters a lot.<\/p>\n
“I won’t be playing any practice matches this year.<\/p>\n
“I will have a good couple of weeks of training and see what I can do.”<\/p>\n
His preparation will include a crack at the Bendigo Harriers-organised 5k Frenzy at Flora Hill this Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Whitham thanked not only the support of his father and partner, but also his coach Daryl Nettleton and his nan in Venus Bay.<\/p>\n
“She was upset to pay the $5 subscription for the (VAL) livestream. but I’m telling her she’s hopefully got her money’s worth at $2.50 per win,” he said.<\/p>\n
In other strong local performances, Bendigo Harriers’ Lonain Burnett was third in the open 500m.<\/p>\n
Burnett ran from 42m and hit line in 1:10.29 behind only Declan Gall, 28m, 1:09.46, and Connor Callinan, 38m, 1:09.76.<\/p>\n
Greg Hilson from South Bendigo Athletics Club, was fifth in the over-35s 300m.<\/p>\n
Hilson started on a mark of 47m and clocked a time of 36.48.<\/p>\n
Luke Matthews (Bendigo Harriers) was eighth in 36.96 off the 25m mark.<\/p>\n
The feature Gold Nugget open 400m events were respectively won by Declan Gall (men’s), Keely Henderson (women’s) and Jonathan Marraffa (under-18).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HAVING only broken through for his maiden Victorian Athletic League win last month, Mitch Whitham has found himself in the enviable position of chasing three in a row at next month’s legendary Stawell Gift Carnival. The 28-year-old Bendigo University Athletics Club runner made it back-to-back wins on the circuit with his victory in the open […]<\/p>\n