Flagstaff Gift athletics carnival on this Saturday

RYAN Williams’s plan for this Saturday’s Flagstaff Gift athletics meet is unique – run fast then sing alternative-rock hits.

25/2/16. Ryan Williams, 16, is competing in the Flagstaff Gift athletics race and also playing in the post-race band, the Artisan Rabbits. Pic: Keryn Stevens

RUN fast then sing alternative-rock hits.

That is Ryan Williams’s plan for the Flagstaff Gift athletics meet at Flagstaff Hill Oval on Saturday.

Williams, of Hawthordene, will compete in the under-17 120m and under-20 70m sprints before his band, the Artisan Rabbits, performs as part of the post-race entertainment.

The lead singer/bass guitarist, who compares his group to Violent Soho and early Silverchair, hopes the 90-minute set caps a strong day on the track.

“I’ll do my races then I’ll get all jazzed up and get ready to play,” Williams, 16, says.

“It’ll be good if people stick around for the band afterwards because it’s a really good day. It’ll be a long day but hopefully it goes well and I get a sash.”

Williams, a Blackwood High Year 11 student, has been in the band for about seven years, and started to “take things seriously” in 2014.

Artisan Rabbits’ estimated 30 gigs to date have mostly been parties and they have also played at McLaren Vale’s Harvest Festival.

“We do alternative rock and kind of ‘90s grunge,” Williams, 16, says. “We don’t really like the new stuff.”

Williams juggles music and athletics with football for South Adelaide’s under-18s.

Since following schoolmates to Flagstaff Athletics Club in October, he has won one race and also finished second in the under-18 120m and 550m at the Bay Sheffield.

“Flagstaff is a smaller club but it’s a family club.

“It’ll be good to get out there again (on Sunday) with the whole team and represent the club.”

Races start at Flagstaff Hill Oval on Saturday from 3.30pm. Entry is free.