GOROKE'S Duncan Cameron broke a 41-year-old sprinting record held by former Collingwood football champion Bill Picken on Wednesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cameron attends Monivae College in Hamilton, and blitzed Picken's 20 years and under school record in the 100-metre sprint.
Picken's 11.4 seconds had stood since 1973, before
Cameron recorded 11.09 seconds.
It is a good sign for Cameron, who will contest the Stawell Gift for the first time this year.
Cameron will run in the under-17 100-metres and novice race at Stawell.
He said it was an exciting step in his athletics career. "I've been to regionals for school and whatnot, but I've never been to any athletics meet outside of school," he said.
"I get to do the novice race because I've never raced with the Victorian Athletic League before."
Cameron said breaking Picken's record was a good achievement, but not something he set out to do.
"I was sort of aware of it, but I definitely wasn't expecting to break it," he said.
"I got a good start and felt good out of the blocks and I won by 25 metres or something so it felt good.
"I found out immediately after the race that I had won.
"Even though it is only a school record, it was still fairly pleasing to do."
Cameron also won the 200-metre sprint on Wednesday by more than 20 metres and narrowly missed out on another school record.
His big results and coming appearance at the Stawell Gift were made more impressive by the fact Cameron has no coach and trains himself.
Like Picken, Cameron is a talented multi-sport athlete.
He said he was unsure if he wanted to make a career out of sprinting due to his love of cricket.
"I play a lot of cricket with the Western Waves down in Melbourne so cricket is my first priority," he said.
"But after that it's definitely athletics and sprinting."