THE Portland Little Athletics Centre was represented by the Campbell family at one of Australia’s premier running events over the Easter weekend.

Ashton, Kobi and Sabra Campbell all competed at the Stawell Gift carnival, with a number of Little Athletics Victoria events forming part of the overall three-day program.

Little Athletics 100m, 400m, 800m and 1600m events were open to Little Athletics Victoria members and run in a handicap format with athletes ranging from under-9 to under-16 all running together – meaning the older or faster athletes gave up a head-start to the younger athletes.

The Portland trio returned with some success with Ashton and Kobi reaching the final of the 400m, and Ashton also progressing to the semi-finals of the 100m.

The 400m handicap heats were held on Sunday afternoon with Ashton winning heat four and Kobi winning heat eight.

That placed them both into Monday morning’s final with the backmarker running the full 400m and the others staggered ahead up to 115m in front.

The two youngest athletes in the field were able to hold off the pack with Chloe Burrows (handicap 106m) winning ahead of Willow Glover (115m) and Jack Burton (65m), with Kobi Campbell (78m) claiming fourth and Ashton Campbell (18m) crossing the line in ninth, just behind the backmarker Declan Maling.

The 100m handicap heats were held on Sunday morning.

Sabra Campbell contested the girls’ 100m (off a 30m handicap), competing in the seventh of 10 heats.

Kobi Campbell (handicap 30m) placed second in his heat, but missed a place in the semi-final by just 0.071 of a second.

Ashton Campbell (handicap 16m) claimed second place in heat one, and his time was quick enough to book him a place in Monday morning’s semi-final where he placed fifth.