Thomas Moloney will be one runner to watch when the Stawell Gift commences.
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He first competed in a Victorian Athletic event at the Stawell Gift in 2014 with a passion to return and win the big one.
Now having won the Geelong Gift the impossible seems possible for the 20-year-old.
Moloney trains with the well known POD squad, coached by Peter O’Dwyer in Ballarat.
Having missed the 2015 and 2016 Stawell Gifts through injury Moloney is eager to return.
“I definitely think I can come into Stawell and come away with a win,” Moloney said.
“The Stawell gift means a lot to me as our squad has a big history there, it's the biggest event on the Australian sporting calendar, and I believe I was born to win it.”
O'Dwyer knows how to get the best out of his athletes with Holly Dobbyn, Grace O’Dwyer, Tahlia Martin and Matt Wiltshire all taking out Stawell Gifts in recent years.
For Moloney the Stawell Gift became the dream when he realised he wasn't up to taking his football to the next level.
“On the footy field my speed was always a great strength of mine,” he said.
“I was invited down to training in February 2014 and from my first session I kind of fell in love with sprinting.”
Moloney doesn’t have a strong family history with short distance running he assumes his grandmother played her part.
“She often says she was the fastest runner at her school back in the day so I guess I got some speed genes from her,” Moloney said.
While not a Gift winner yet he does have some things in common with last years winner Isaac Dunmall including their superstitions around their socks.
“My only superstition now is to wear my superman socks at every gift after wearing them when I won at Geelong,”
Moloney has been in good form having booked a finals finish in the Ballarat and St Albans gifts. He then finished second in the 70m Don Furness at Avondale Heights 70m race, before he peaked with a Geelong Gift win on the weekend.
Moloney has no plans set in stone between now and Stawell, but he knows the next six weeks will be the biggest six weeks of his life.
Moloney will run off seven metres when he attempts to write is name in the record books.