By Tara Murray
Greenvale’s Max Busuttil had a mixed time of it the Australian Athletics Championships, but he did enough to come away with silver in the under-14 boys 200 metres.
Busuttil set himself the aim of coming away with two medals from the Sydney event, but things didn’t go to plan early on.
“I missed the 100 metres, as my flight got changed,” he said. “Then after two hours, it was cancelled and I got moved to a later flight.”
Once he was settled in Sydney, his focus switched to the 200 metres, his favourite event.
Busuttil said his preparation for that wasn’t the best, but he finished second, 0.09 seconds behind the winner.
“I thought I could have gone better,” he said. “The 200 metres is my better event. I prefer being able to catch people at the last bit.”
The national championships continued a good couple of years for Busuttil, who started taking athletics seriously after some success
at school sports at Greenvale Primary School in 2017.
He qualified for the state titles that year, finishing fifth in the 200 metres.
With that coming on the back of little training, Busuttil’s parents enrolled him at Keilor Little Athletics. He has since joined Keilor St Bernards Athletic Club, as well.
Since then, the success has continued.
He finished second in the under-12 200 metres at the 2018 Little Athletics Victoria titles.
Later last year, he won gold in the 100 and 200 metres in the School Sports Victoria championships before going on to win gold in the 200 metres and bronze in the 100 metres at the national schools titles.
He won gold in the 200 metres and silver in the 100 metres at the Little Athletics Victoria Championships and won the 200 metres and silver in the 100 metres at the 2019 Victorian Track and Field Championships.
Busuttil said it was amazing to win a national title that was made even better because he got a personal best in the process.
He said he had enjoyed being able to learn more with his running in the past couple of years. He said hopefully he would go to the Olympics in the future.
“You get to compete against other people and you get to go places,” he said.
“I get to express my passion and I very much enjoy it.
“There’s friendly competition.”
The Maribyrnong College student, who looks up to Usain Bolt, will be back on track later this week at the Australian Little Athletics Championships in Hobart.
“I’m competing in the relay, the 100 metres and 200 metres,” he said.
“I reckon I might win.”
