By Derek Schlennstedt
Healesville’s very own Annie Fiedler made history at the recent Stawell gift being the first woman ever to win the Sertoris Masters’ 300m final.
The open Master’s 300 metre final is a handicapped race open to both male and female competitors over the age of 35, and in the final Annie raced against 9 other men who she said she was just able to fend off at the finish line.
“They were chasing me down at the finish but I was able to hold them off,” she said.
The 300m race is held over two days with 100 competitors entering into 10 heats – each finalist goes on to race in the final which is run on Monday.
The impressive win comes after a long break from the sport in 2006 to focus on her family and her two children.
In 2013 Anne returned to the sport and told The Mail that it had been a difficult and long road juggling parenting and running.
“It’s been a bit of juggle, I work full-time and with two young kids it gets pretty busy, but you just have to organise your time and grab windows of training when you can.
“I do a lot of training up the local oval just up Don Road, take the kids out and get the picnic blanket out with their toys and go have a run around.”
“The more I kept doing it the better I felt and so I thought I’d make a little commitment to myself, ’you’re busy with kids but you gotta do something for yourself, I’d say to myself,’” Anne said.
Having dedicated a life to the sport, the Healesville resident has competed in various competitions since she was 15, but, it was her big win in 2001 at the Stawell Gift which really made history.
In the open 400 metres race, Anne won the event making her the only female to win any open race at Stawell.
In a follow-up 16 years later, Anne has again made history being the first woman to win the 300m open.
Anne said that four years after coming back to the sport, she was feeling much better and had no plans to hang up the running boots anytime soon.
“The body feels great now, I’m enjoying the running and gotten through that hard stage of coming back, so think I’ll keep running for a bit longer yet,” she said.
