Lismore SCU student wins Stawell Gift | Northern Rivers Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Northern Rivers

UNHERALDED Southern Cross University student Aaron Stubbs has easily doubled the income of an average uni student after he caused a boilover by winning the $40,000 128th Stawell Gift yesterday.

Stubbs won Australia’s richest and oldest foot race off a mark of 7.25m, rounding up the frontmarkers by the midway stage of the 120m handicap event before streaking clear to win in an adjusted time of 11.93 seconds.

Stubbs won the race wearing running spikes given to him by former Olympian and Commonwealth Games 100m sprinter Matt Shirvington.

The Gold Coast Australian Surf Lifesaving beach sprint champion crept under the radar of experts who had expected big names such as Olympians Josh Ross and Sean Wroe to dominate.

“I guess my win did come as a bit of a surprise,” Stubbs told The Northern Star from Stawell.

“Everyone had to do a trial and at my trial I was about five metres off the pace but I just kept positive and I had confidence that I could do it.”

It is easy to understand why Stubbs had the confidence to succeed as he claimed four gold medals competing for the Kurrawa Club at the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships in Perth last month.

“I won the under-19 beach sprint and then the open beach sprint then came back and won the under-19 beach sprint relay and the open beach sprint relay,” he said.

“I won four gold medals in 40 minutes which had never been done before. I was pretty sore afterwards that’s for sure.”

His exploits on the beach and his Stawell victory has given the 18-year-old the ambition to compete for Australia in the 200m at the 2012 London Olympics.

“I think I’m well on track to do that now but I need to do more,” he said.

“I have never done that well  or competed that much on the track, only at State school titles, and to be honest I got my butt handed to me.

“But I’m starting to relax more in my racing because I think I was taking it all too seriously. I truly believe racing is 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent physical.”

Since moving to Lismore to study osteopathy, Stubbs has been based at Sirius College and does all his training at Riverview Park, Nielson Park or Thistles Soccer Club.

“I just train with a few of my friends from Uni who I have a few classes with and they have really helped out,” he said.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the money ... no idea. But I don’t think I’ll be buying too many drinks.

“I’ll probably just spend it on Uni.”

Sprinting runs in the family for the Stubbs family and Aaron’s father Paul represented the Lennox Head-Alstonville Surf Club briefly in 2006.

“Dad won a gold medal for them at the World Masters and he competed at Stawell but he hurt his hamstring in the heats,” Stubbs said.

The former Broadbeach Waters resident pushed Paul Tancredi into second and backmarker Matt Davies into third at Stawell.

Earlier, Stubbs moved into the final with the fastest semi-final time of the meeting and he looked super-confident before the race, waving to his supporters in the crowd at Central Park.

Stubbs is coached by Ryan Hoffman who has raced at Stawell regularly in the last 15 years.

The teenager will return to Lismore on Wednesday to continue his study at SCU.

Ross’s bid to win a record third Gift crown ended when he was eliminated in the semi-finals earlier yesterday.