Shaun gets jump on Vics as gift goes north

LONG JUMPER Shaun Fletcher led a New South Wales domination of the $2000 Daylesford Gift 100m handicap on Saturday.Athletes from the northern state captured the three podium spots in the Victorian Athletic League's marquee race at Cricket Willow.Victory was sweet for Fletcher who was forced to settle for second at Maryborough two days earlier.He sounded his intention at Daylesford with powerful heat and semi-final wins.Fletcher had the title in his grasp at the 50m mark of the final.Running with long jump instincts, his hard work was done.All that was left was to hold on."The first half is always my best, that's where I'm trained to run as fast as I can. While I probably wasn't quite there in the final I just kept going," Fletcher said."It means a lot to me winning at Daylesford with the long jump season just starting."The Victorians probably don't like us very much at the moment, but we just run off the marks we are given and they run off the marks they are given."Fletcher exploded off the blocks at 4.5m to eclipse fellow New South Welshman and 70m winner Montgomery Simes (6m) in a time of 10.62 seconds.Backmarker Richard Hankin (4.25m) finished a close third.All three athletes hail from the Newcastle region.Fletcher, who is trained by long jump coach Max Debnam, turned to professional running three years ago to add extra bite to his preferred discipline.The 26-year-old trained up to run at Stawell and since then tries to fit as many VAL meets into his program around his long jumping.He is focused on the national athletics championships in March and his impressive form at Maryborough and Daylesford was a definite confidence boost.Ballarat athletes had tough gift assignments at Daylesford.In-form Tim Atkinson (5.75m), who finished third at Maryborough, was dismissed from the semi-finals after double breaking.The Creswick 20-year-old had earlier blitzed a blockbuster heat field with the fastest qualifying time of 10.75 seconds.Breaking also troubled Ballarat's Shane Woodrow (6.25m) back three quarters of a metre in heat six where he struggled to chase down a fast field.Simon Menz, Rob Lehmann and Rod Mathews joined Atkinson in the semis _ with Lehmann, Mathews and Atkinson each lined-up to knock each other out.