The Kelfit stable has had some sort of season in the Victorian Athletic League and it just got a whole lot better at the weekend.

Lucy Zotti and Glenn Barry ensured the Seymour crew’s most successful season on record was capped off in the right way, with the pair delivering storming runs to each secure their maiden sashes at Stawell.

Already a four-time winner across four different distances in the 2025-26 season, Zotti capped off her stunning campaign in the best possible fashion on Saturday afternoon, earning her first ever victory at the world-renowned Stawell Gift Carnival.

The VAL’s grand final equivalent, the Stawell Gift is the meet targeted by every athlete, and it was Zotti that conquered all-comers with a storming run in the Northern Grampians Shire Council 800m Women’s Handicap final, much to the delight of her Kelfit teammates.

Having only just progressed to the 10-strong field for the final, finishing with the eighth fastest overall time from the two heats, Zotti lined up alongside teammates Olivia Attard and Isabella Morgan in said final, with the trio’s respective handicaps seeing them fittingly sport the red, white and blue of the Kelfit squad.

Attard was in red as the backmarker for the event off a mark of 24m, 13m behind Zotti, who started off a mark of 37m, a 15m hit from the 52m she won the same event off at the Seymour Gift in December, while Morgan was off 65m. The three Seymour athletes were at the rear of the field, with Attard giving up 110m to frontrunner Martine Beer.

As the gun went off it was Morgan who made the early moves, flying through the six athletes between herself and Beer, closing the gap down rapidly to find herself right in the thick of the action at the halfway point.

At the bell, Morgan looked comfortable in second spot ahead of a large pack, while in the background Zotti was quietly reeling them in, sitting 15 or so metres off the bunch to begin the final lap, while Attard was moving well too, maintaining a gap of about 10m to Zotti.

Beer continued to lead the way down the back straight with Morgan in second, but it was Zotti who looked to have all the momentum behind her as she caught and passed the chasers to sit third, with stablemate Morgan firmly in her sights.

Rounding the bend like a thoroughbred, Zotti unleashed her full stride, passing a fading Morgan and timing her run to perfection, running up to, and then flying past, frontrunner Beer as they entered the home straight, before pulling away and throwing her arms in the air as she completed an emphatic victory.

Attard put in a storming run too as the backmarker, rounding the bend four-wide to edge the entire chasing pack to make it a Kelfit first and third, narrowly missing second spot, which was held on to by Beer.

Morgan fought the entire way to the line to claim sixth spot, pipped by 0.4 of a second for fifth spot on the line, as the three Kelfit athletes dominated the two-lap event.

But the moment belonged to Zotti, who capped a dream season with her fifth sash in a dominant showing, and her first at the prestigious Stawell event.

Overcome with emotion, Zotti, flanked by overjoyed Kelfit teammates, expressed disbelief at her achievements in the post-race interview on the Channel 7 broadcast.

“I just sort of blanked the whole race. The heat was so hard and I really doubted myself after that,” she said.

“But to just go for it, I just thought I’ve got nothing to lose. I can’t believe I just won a Stawell sash.”

The win is the cherry on top of a brilliant season for Zotti, who broke through for a drought-breaking win at the Seymour Gift in December to end a run of nine podiums — seven times second and twice third — without a win.

But as soon as Zotti crossed the line in Seymour to be crowned the 800m women’s champion, the dam wall was broken, and the Kelfit superstar simply couldn’t stop winning.

The 400m women’s title in Seymour later that afternoon also went Zotti’s way, while she claimed further wins over 120m at Shepparton and 300m at Ringwood, making her perhaps the most versatile and successful athlete in the VAL this season.

There is no doubt that her Stawell victory would rank the sweetest of them all, though, adding a sash from the famed gift to her ever-expanding trophy cabinet and a victory that perhaps has her in line for even more silverware come the VAL awards evening.

Zotti’s brilliant campaign continued on Monday, too, where she narrowly missed out on a second sash for the carnival, running second in the Lorraine Donnan 400m women’s race, closing rapidly in the dying stages but falling just short of overhauling winner Tiana Shillito, who started off a mark of 58m as opposed to Zotti’s 29m.

While Zotti narrowly missed out on Monday afternoon, Barry did not, delivering a scintillating run in the Sean Quity Masters 45+ Series Final 800m Over 45s race, where he hunted down the nine athletes starting ahead of him with aplomb.

Off a mark of 144m, Barry quickly moved his way through the field, crossing the line after the first lap in fourth, about four seconds behind the second and third-placed runners, while still nearly 50m behind the frontrunner.

Barry entered second position going into the back straight and started making ground on Gary Blake, the lone leader, who still enjoyed a margin of 25 or so metres as he began to round the final bend with 200m to go.

But it was all Barry late, as he put the hammer down to surge into the lead as they straightened for the final time, putting enough of a gap between himself and the field to hold off a late charge from Rob Irwin and secure Kelfit’s second sash in the final event of the carnival.

“It means a lot,” a breathless Barry told the broadcast after crossing the line.

“We’ve had a big year, Kelfit. I’ve battled injury, I tried to do this last year with a couple of runs, (I did) four hamstrings and a groin, but I got going in December, and I can’t believe it, I cannot believe it.”

He further elaborated on just how much it meant when presented with his sash, dedicating the win to his daughter Olivia, who was also competing at the weekend.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a couple of years, just compete, and I’m a bit late to the stage, I suppose,” he said.

“I thought I was building all right, but I honestly didn’t think I was probably ready. I just thought why not let it rip, and now I’m absolutely buggered.

“Thanks to Kelvin (Lubeck) and the whole crew at Kelfit, it’s such a family.

“Speaking of families, I’d like to thank my wife Ange and my girls. Probably my biggest inspiration is Olivia.

“She got me into this and she’s had a tough week. I had you in the back of my mind with this win, I wanted to do it for you, you’ve been awesome all year.

“Come on, Kelfit.”

The win is Barry’s second for the season, having triumphed over the same distance in Geelong in mid-March.

Stawell held more joy for the Kelfit crew, with Declan Goodwin enjoying a brilliant run in the 1600m backmarkers event to notch another podium for the Seymour stable, finishing second ahead of teammate Cooper Lubeck in fifth, while Attard ran valiantly in search of a three-peat at Stawell in the 1600m frontmarkers race, finishing fourth.

Seymour Running Club president Blair Collins made it a fourth podium for Kelfit with a sensational second in the 1600m restricted event, while Lucy Potter made the finals of all three of the 100m, 400m and 800m under-18 races.

Junior Max Christensen finished second in the Little Athletics Victoria 100m final on Monday afternoon off a mark of 9m, crossing the line just 0.005 seconds behind the winner in an agonisingly close finish.

Olivia Barry finished third in her semi-final of the marquee event, the Powercor 120m Women’s Gift, with the overall title eventually taken out by Sha’Carri Richardson, the American superstar powering to victory with a magnificent closing effort to win off scratch, becoming just the third woman in the 144-year history of the event to do so.

In the men’s Powercor 120m Gift, South Australian Olufemi Komolafe claimed the title ahead of backmarker Jake Ireland, who has now twice finished runner-up in Australia’s richest footrace.

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Tuesday, 9th October 2029

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