Mount Gambier teenager Hayden Crowe performs at Stawell Gift

Speedy teen Hayden Crowe might not be Edward Ware – who smashed the Stawell Gift this year – but he was only seconds behind the winner.

Edward Ware might be the name on everyone’s lips but a 16-year-old Mount Gambier boy was only a metre behind the Stawell Gift winner.

In his first appearance at the gift, Hayden Crowe ran second in the 200m Jack Donaldson Handicap, only beaten by the man who did the double.

“I wasn’t too sure about how I was going to go because it was my first time doing an open event and I was running against grown men,” Crowe said.

Mount Gambier teenager Hayden Crowe placed second 200m Jack Donaldson Handicap at the Stawell Gift. Picture: Supplied.

The 200m-specialist won his heat, then his semi-final and crossed the finish line in second from a handicap 13m.

Crowe said it was an honour to run beside the 32-year-old who had claimed the main event an hour earlier.

“It’s pretty amazing because I think they said nine years he’d been trying to win the Stawell Gift,” he said.

“It definitely feels pretty special just to know I was there in that competition.”

A Little Athletics competitor from the age of eight, Crowe only started training seriously at the start of 2019 after winning a state title and making nationals.

Coach Sally Taylor said the young gun ran brilliantly on Easter Monday.

Mount Gambier teenager Hayden Crowe placed second 200m Jack Donaldson Handicap at the Stawell Gift. Picture: Supplied.

“For a young bloke to go to Stawell for the first time and actually get into a Stawell Gift final is just amazing,” Taylor said.

The coach of 25 years said it was Crowe’s youth that made his performance against a field of men even more impressive.

“These young guys are still growing; they’re not going to be great out of the start until they really get their strength and grow that extra bit,” she said.

“He was pretty raw when he first came out. He always had quick leg speed but no technique whatsoever and he’s gradually got his technique coming along well.

“He is the sort of kid I can say do this, and he does it, that’s the difference.”

Crowe also made the final in the under-18 100m and competed in the 400m backmarkers but has already turned his attention to Australian Track and Field Championships where he will contest the 100m, 200m, 400m and two relay events later this month.

Mount Gambier teenager Hayden Crowe (centre) receiving his sash for the 400m restricted race event at Ballarat last year before going pro. Picture: Supplied

“I’ve improved a lot since the last time I went to the national championships and I think I’ve got a much better chance than I did back then,” he said.

While his sights are set on making finals at nationals for now, in the long term he hopes to return to Stawell to go one better and may even take a chance on the famous foot race.

“I probably will enter for the main event, the 120m, most likely I wouldn’t make it past the first round but you never know,” he said.

“For me the 120m is actually a really good distance, because usually when I’m doing 100m, I have a high top speed but my starts can be a little bit slower so towards the end of the race I usually start to catch up to whoever’s winning so it’s good to have extra 20m and catch them.”

The teen said his success would not have been possible without coaches Taylor, Terry McGarity, Tony Elletson from the Limestone Coast Regional Sporting Academy, his parents and squad-mates.