John Evans wins 120m sprint at 143rd Powercor Stawell Gift semi-finals against Gout Gout
The 28-year-old teacher is now one of only a few people who can boast about beating the sprint sensation in a 120m sprint.
Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Blackwood High schoolteacher John Evans is still on cloud nine – basking in the glory of winning the richest sprint race in the country.
The academic said “words can’t really describe what it was like” to win the historic 120m long Stawell Gift.
“I knew I had done the work and I put everything in. I just needed to do it again one more time and leave nothing out there,” proud Evans told The Advertiser.
And he proved to be a worthy winner, after knocking out 17-year-old sprint sensation Gout Gout in Monday’s semi-final at Central Park in Victoria.
Evans won the race and clocked a time of 11.94 seconds – off a 9.75m handicap. Gout finished a game second.
Evans later claimed the $40,000 winner’s cheque.
It was Evans sixth attempt to win the Stawell Gift.
In the weeks leading up to the race, Evans said he heard “rumours” that he could be racing against Gout and other “high competitors”, which left him feeling “nervous and worried”.
But when it came to race time, Evans was ice-cold.
“I was pretty relaxed and composed”, he said.
“I’ve got a pre-race ritual, but, when I’m actually racing, it’s literally just ‘you’ve gotta go’, and there’s nothing else that goes on in your head”.
“There’s so much pressure and so much stress leading into it,” he said.
“It’s almost a bit overwhelming for a minute and then I managed to compose myself for the finals.
“When I finished the finals, I was elated and over the moon. Words couldn’t really describe what it was like because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that you can’t replicate very easily.”
In 2013, Evans took a trip to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, where he met someone who introduced him to his current coach Paul Young.
“We got in contact and we started doing a couple of training sessions, and that was the start of it,” he said.
To prepare for the Gift, the pair drafted a plan to help Evans get to peak performance.
“[We] just kept working towards that one goal of getting us ready to go for the Gift,” he recalled.
When he won the finals, Evans emotionally embraced Young – who claimed his own victory in the event back in 1985.
“It’s his fortieth anniversary of the Gift and I was able to give him [the Fergie Speakman] trophy. It was a moment that him and I shared and it’s something that we can hold on to together,” he said,
“We did this together and we got to this point.”
Now in his fourth year of teaching, Evans said he’s normally boastful with his students about being a pro-athletic and rarely fails to share that he’s “won some races”.
“I [told them] I’ll get to race Gout, and they were pretty impressed by that. They thought I was kidding until I proved it to them and then they were all betting against me,” he said.
‘Trying not to cry’: Gymnasts jump for joy at ‘Olympic level’ pledge for SA
A special guest has flown into SA to celebrate years of hard work paying off, as gymnasts leap toward a new world-class facility.
Meet SA’s rising rugby stars ‘defying belief’
It’s long been dominated by the eastern states but things are changing with a wave of young South Aussie talent emerging ready to take the sport to new heights.