Maiden Gift victory for long jumper Clark

Starting off a mark of 8.75m, Clark clocked the fastest time of the day of 12.78 seconds in the final, with Gates taking second place and Jack Colgrave rounding out the podium.

The 24-year-old said he felt Gates coming up beside him, but remained focused on getting to the finish line through maintaining his technique.

“Sometimes in Gift racing you need to keep an eye on what is happening around you and I could see the white coming hard,” Clark said.

“I had to stay consistent with my running through all the races, which I felt I did in the heat and semi-final before putting my best race together in the final.”

With victory in the final, Clark completed an undefeated day in Gift racing, winning his heat in a time of 13.37 and his semi-final in a time of 12.92.

A long jumper by preference, Clark had been using running in the carnival events as a part of his training to improve his speed.

“I’m a long jumper and running is a part of the training, with more speed on the track equals more speed on the pits, so I am trying to get as much running as I can.”

Clark hoped he could hold onto his form through the remainder of his Tasmanian Christmas Carnival Series campaign, as he builds towards a goal of making the 2018 national long jump final.

“I will try to continue running well as I have committed to the all the carnivals, except for St Helens because I will be heading over to Perth around that time.

“Last year, I just missed out on the national long jump final by a couple of centimetres in one of tightest fields ever and I really want to crack a final in a Commonwealth Games year.”

Of the other notable runners in the field, 2016 Rosebery Gift champion Tim Potter and 2017 Burnie Gift winners Morgan Gaffney and Jorden Englund were knocked out at the semi-final stage.

Jack Colgrave didn’t let a third place finish in the 120m Gift get him down as the runner took out the 200m handicap at the Rosebery Carnival.

Starting off a 12m mark, Colgrave crossed the line in a time of 22.03 seconds to edge out Jorden Englund, Luke Whitney, Jarred Gilroy, Rosebery Gift champion Brandon Clark and Adam French.

In the 400m handicap, Dan Lemoto off 34m held on to claim the victory in a time of 48.67.

Max Green was able to claim a second place finish, with Lachlan Bonney in third and Alec Eiszele in fourth.

Bonney responded in the 800m handicap, to claim the title off a starting mark of 60m with a time of 1:47.12.

Aaron Humphrey took out second place behind Bonney, with Green taking third and Sandy Loring finishing fourth.

Paralympian Deon Kenzie won the final title of the carnival, taking out the 1600m handicap off 140m in 4:08.92 with Humphrey finishing in second place and Thomas Wilson completing the podium.