An in-form Matt Wiltshire is attempting the rare feat of backing up his 120m restricted sash, won last year, with the headline title at Eureka Stadium this weekend.

He looms as one of the hometown’s strongest chances for the $25,000 Ballarat Gift 120m Handicap.

Ballarat athletes will vie to return the crown to the city after Queenslander Andrew McCabe ended a two-year reign under Ballarat veterans Rod Mathews and Peter O’Dwyer.

Both Mathews and O’Dwyer remain in the chance to restamp their mark as the town’s premier sprinters.

Wiltshire, trained by O’Dwyer, made an impressive start on the Victorian Athletic League circuit by capturing the Peninsula 120m Gift sash and finishing top three in the Gippsland 70m invite and Warragul 120m Gift finals.

The POD Squad took to beach training post-Christmas before Wiltshire reached the semi-finals at Maryborough.

He starts tomorrow evening’s heats as the first Ballarat contender off the blocks at 6.75m in heat three. Alfredton’s Braydon Newell will run off 8.5m in heat four with highly-fancied metropolitan sprinter Cam Dunbar off a backmark of five metres.

Wiltshire’s training partner Rory Nunn, a 400m specialist, launches his campaign off 8.5m in heat six.

Ballarat’s seasoned contenders will step up late in the heat program.

O’Dwyer (8.75m) will go head-to-head with Ballarat’s Nathan Fox (7.5m) in heat 10 while Mathews starts as outmarker off 11m in the 11th and final heat. Mathews, the 2009 Ballarat winner and finalist last year, has been building form this season, mostly through 300m and 400m events, but has also been dangerous over 120m.

Williamstown-based Jamaican sprinter Khan Marr is the backmarker off 3.5m and should set the tone in heat one. The program continues with semi-finals and finals for main events tomorrow.