Tamsyn Lewis

Scott Gullan



It is still regarded as one of the greatest performances seen in the 130 years of the Stawell Gift carnival.

Cathy Freeman’s extraordinary win in the 400m in 1996 remains fresh in the memory of those who saw it, in particular Tamsyn Lewis.

‘‘That race was one of the most amazing races I have ever seen by any athlete,’’ Lewis said yesterday.

‘‘She is phenomenal, Cath, because she always only did enough to win.

But because she had to work so damn hard to get to the out-markers, it was just an amazing run.

‘‘I mean she is probably the best athlete I have ever seen run.’’

This weekend Lewis is trying to emulate her hero and former training partner by winning the 400m event.

Freeman’s Stawell heroics — she also won the 400m in 1995 — was voted by the Stawell Athletic Club as the fifth-best performance in the event’s history on a list to mark the 125th anniversary.

The romance of it appeals to Lewis and also the precedent it set.

Four months after her triumph at Stawell, she was standing on the Olympic dais in Atlanta receiving a silver medal having run the fastest time of her career to just be beaten by the great Frenchwoman Marie-Jose Perec.

Lewis has put herself in the medal picture for the Beijing Olympics after her stunning victory in the 800m at the world indoor championships in Valencia, Spain, last week.

There is no doubt the 29-year-old is in the best shape of her life — she set a 400m personal best at last month’s Olympic trials — but often at Stawell that still isn’t enough given the quirks of the handicap system.

Lewis will start from scratch and give up to 9m to her nearest competitors and 60m to the limit markers.

‘‘It would be pretty cool by the time I retire to have actually won one. But I am nowhere near Cathy Freeman’s level, so I find it a bit tougher to win off scratch,’’ Lewis said.

‘‘There are girls at 20m-30m who can genuinely run who you find hard to catch. They are just so tough. In amateurs it is a different level of mentality.

‘‘You find that when the gun goes they take it out so hard. And over the last 50m some of them barely make it to the finish line because they have taken it out so hard.

‘‘Often you don’t even catch up until the last straight and that doesn’t leave you with a lot of time (to win).’’

New South Wales’s Trish Greaves, who finished fifth in the national 400m final, is off 9m and Australian 400m hurdles champion Lauren Boden is off 10m. Last year’s winner, Tara Gleeson from Langwarrin, is off 2m.

Lewis is also entered in the 100m Gift, which she has won previously, but a decision on whether she runs won’t be made until the weekend.

Camping at Halls Gap and running at the Stawell carnival is a tradition for the Lewis family. Tamsyn’s father Greg and older brother Justin have both performed with distinction on the grass track at Central Park.

Greg, a national champion who represented Australia at Commonwealth and Olympic Games, won the 200m at Stawell in 1977 and finished second in the 100m backmarkers behind Warren Edmonson.

Justin, a semi-finalist at the 2002 Gift, has now hung up the spikes and taken over as his sister’s coach.

Tamsyn first raced at Stawell in 1994 and has only missed one year.

‘‘I was really upset I missed it but, as a 17-year-old, the trip to America was pretty cool although I remember gettingmumand dad to fax me things across (about the Gift),’’ she said.

Her training group comprises professional runners and the 13-time national champion believes that has played a major part in her breakthrough season.

‘‘It is such a fun atmosphere because all of my training partners are professional athletes,’’ Lewis said.

‘‘That has been one of the reasons why I have improved so much,because their attitude to training is completely different to the amateurs.

‘‘It is more about having fun and getting the most out of yourself.

‘‘I think they have really rubbed off on me.’’ Lewis, whose open-mouth expression when she won in Spain captivated the nation, said it had been a crazy week as world champion.

‘‘Justin has convinced me since I have been back that it shouldn’t have been a shock,’’ Lewis said.

‘‘He expected it for so long. The training I had been doing suggested I was capable of it.

‘‘Hopefully now when I go over to Europe I will be able to mix it with the girls and win a couple of grand prixs.

‘‘And he doesn’t want to see the shocked look on my face.’’