HE may not have had the greatest of Easter weekends at the Stawell Gift, but Kristerfer Kardakovski is still a name to watch out for.
Kardakovski travelled from his home in Epping to the Wimmera for the 131st running of the Stawell Gift.
Confident of a good result, he was left wondering what might have been after failing to make it past the heats in his three events, the 70 metre, 100 metre and 120 metre races.
“It didn’t go as planned,” admits Kardakovski. “A few false starts took my concentration away … I thought I could have done a lot better. I think I just got too far ahead of myself and I was a bit too quick for the gun.’’
There were a number of false starts in the competition, most notably in the women’s Gift final when eventual winner Melissa Breen jumped the gun.
Kardakovski finished fifth in the ninth heat for the Gift, lining up against eventual finalist and 2006 Commonwealth Games medallist John Steffensen. Kardakovski says Steffensen was quick in the heats but he didn’t think he would win the race.
“It was a really interesting final, I thought,” Kardakovski says.
“The kid from Ballarat [Matthew Wiltshire] surprised everyone and ended up winning it.
‘‘I think when Steffensen knew he couldn’t win he backed off a little bit.
‘‘Everyone wants to win; second place is the first loser.”
Despite the disappointment, Kardakovski says his focus is on the future. He has raced with Preston Athletics Club but is moving to Meadowglen after finding a new coach.
“The season starts again in October so I’ve got a solid six months of training over the winter to get myself right and come back stronger,” he says.
Kardakovski says there are subtle differences in the three events he competed in at the Easter weekend races.
“They all require speed but my advantage is probably in the 100 and 120 metres,” he says.
“The 120 requires speed over a longer distance and in the 70 there is absolutely no room for error, it’s all over very quickly.”
Kardakovski says competitive running is what distinguishes racing sprinters from people who simply think they are quick.
“There’s a lot of difference,” he says. “A sprinter is more explosive and you need a lot of strength and power compared with just normal running.”
And it’s those differences, he believes, that make the 100 metre sprint one of the most watched races at world-class sporting events.
It’s been dominated by Jamaicans of late, but Kardakovski says Australia “is coming very soon. We’ll get our chance’’.
Off the track, Kardakovski has almost finished a personal training course and is hoping to start working in the field soon.
“I just want to help people reach their goals,” he says.
