By RUSSELL BENNETT
CRANBOURNE Little Athletics star Mason Faumuina definitely has the gift of the sprinting gab.
He competed on Stawell Gift day last month, finishing fourth in the 100-metres boys final, and he has national goals in mind.
The Year 7 student at St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School in Warragul said he was nervous in the lead-up to his first Stawell Gift carnival, but he kept up his routine of watching motivational videos on YouTube to get in the right frame of mind prior to the race.
He has run, and won, other gifts before – including the under-13/14 Cranbourne Meteorite – but Stawell was something different.
He said he was happy with his performance at Stawell, but is already running faster times and aims on breaking the 11-second barrier by the end of the year. Still going through continual growth spurts, Mason said he only started to get “really serious” about his running last year but he’s now constantly racing and hopes to one day reach national level.
The 12-year-old regularly competes with the Cranbourne Little Athletics – based out of Casey Fields – and trains on the grass track at Toomuc Reserve most Sundays during the season.
His current personal best times are 13.31 for the 100-metres and 27.10 for the 200.
The Australia Post Stawell Gift is one of Australia’s oldest and richest sporting events and is now seen as the most prestigious foot race in the country. This year’s event was held on the Easter long weekend, Friday 18 to Monday 21 April.
