LOCAL athlete, Manaia Bremner, has claimed victory in the Blue Lake Fun Run held in Mount Gambier recently, with the youngster claiming line honours across the 6.8km course, crossing the finish line first across the whole field, not just the runners in his age group.

For an under-14 athlete, it’s an outstanding achievement and he didn’t just sneak over the line ahead of his competition, but rather he defeated all others by over three and a half minutes such as his dominance.

He broke away from the main pack of runners following him and held them off with a wonderful strategic race plan where he increased his lead at every kilometre marker, and he crossed the line in a time of 25:39.73.

Bremner has improved his results with every event he enters, and since August he has finished 10th at the national Cross-Country titles in Tasmania as part of the Victorian team (finished fourth among Victorian athletes), he finished second in the Warrnambool fun run where the winner was an athlete who is 20 years old and then Mount Gambier followed.

“I’ve had a bit of a break after the cross country season, but I did learn so much at the nationals, especially in what is required in terms of preparation, both physically and mentally for me to be up with all the others,” Bremner said.

“I was supposed to run at the School Sports Victoria State Track and Field Championships but unfortunately, I was sick at the time of the championships, so I didn’t compete.

“When I lined up on the start line at Mount Gambier, I wasn’t sure what to expect, as I had never ran against these athletes before.

“After the start there was a massive hill, and around the one-kilometre mark I looked around and found there was nobody around so then I knew I had the win.

“The Mount Gambier event was a confidence booster for me going into the summer track season (where) I am running for South West Athletics in the Athletics Victoria events.

“My next big events will be Athletics Victoria Victoria Country Championships in January and Victoria State Championships in February.

“My goal for the season is to qualify for nationals by either getting the qualifying time before state championships or placing in the top three at state championships.

“I’ve also joined the Victoria Athletic League this season, racing against older age groups up to Under-18s helps with getting faster and it’s also a lot of fun, plus I’ve made two finals so far.”