BEFORE the weekend’s Ballarat Gift, Terang’s Richard Wearmouth had not won a 300m Victorian Athletics League (VAL) race in seven years.
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It had also been three years since his last 120m VAL win.
But successive wins on Saturday and Sunday saw the 63-year-old break his drought, also claiming a bonus for the most points scored in the masters’ category.
Wearmouth said he had been wondering if his winning days were behind him after repeated runner-up finishes.
“Since the last 120m win, I’d had seven seconds,” he said.
“I was starting to think I was never going to win another race again.
“The races are always tough in places like Ballarat and Stawell.
“I thought I might get in the 120m final and I’d have been happy with that.”
But a clean bill of health and improving form in his 300m running in recent weeks saw Wearmouth hit the track in the best nick he has had for some years.
Running off a handicap of 50m in the 300m, Wearmouth finished in what he described as a “terrific time” of 34.8 seconds in the heat on Saturday.
He produced the exact same time in the final to clinch the win.
But he defied his years to back up on Sunday and win his 120m heat, before winning the final in 13.2 seconds off a handicap of 22m.
“I had two really hard 300s on the Saturday, but then still raced well on the Sunday. It was pretty surreal, really,” Wearmouth said.
“There were seven heats of 10 runners or more (in the 300m). I ran the fastest heat by a fair bit and I ran exactly the same time in the final.”
Wearmouth said he had been the fourth fastest 120m heat winner, but produced the best run in the final.
He believes his strong results are due to being able to take part in more meetings this season than the past few summers.
“I’ve had a lot more runs this season – I’ve been to Albury, Wangaratta and places like that,” Wearmouth said.
“I was pretty fit and free of injury most of the time, and that’s not always been the case. In 2013 I tore my posterior cruciate ligament and in 2014 I tore my achilles.
“I’d been lucky throughout my running that I hadn’t had many serious injuries.
“The knee was a freak one that I just fell after the line and tore my posterior ligament.”
Wearmouth said he was proud of his efforts on the weekend as he was competing against athletes nearly three decades his junior, with the masters’ encompassing runners aged 35 and older.