She had that winning feeling and half-way down the track, Lehmann knew the title was hers.

The Ballarat mother-of-two successfully defended her Daylesford Gift crown in the Victorian Athletic League meet on Saturday.

An emotional Lehmann took to the podium, thanking family, friends and sponsors as she accepted back-to-back sashes.

Lehmann had been concerned about her recovery for Daylesford after an exhaustive campaign at Maryborough on New Year's Day.

But once she stepped up to her starting blocks, Lehmann said everything just clicked.

"You just get a feeling some days that you can run well and this was one of those days," Lehmann said.

"About half-way down the track I reckoned `I've got this' and the start was so perfect the steward later told me it would not have even been called a break at Stawell.

"The support was fantastic, my girls were cheering really loudly from the side."

Lehmann powered off the 7.25m mark and ran a strong time of 12.11 seconds, clearly ahead of Melbourne sprinters Amanda Crook (8m) and Tamara Hamond (5.25m), who joined her on the podium.

Husband Rob greeted Lehmann with hugs at the finishing gate and daughters Jessica and Meg ran down from the mound.

Lehmann returned to the field about an hour later to qualify for the $400 women's 400m handicap final, in which she split South Melbourne's Gilden twins.

The title looked to be Lehmann's after a strong start off 37m until Rosamond Gilden snuck up on the inside on the final straight.

Gilden said she felt an adrenaline rush with the finish line in sight, clocking a winning time of 56.19 seconds.

Her 19-year-old identical twin Eleni finished third.

There was plenty of promising signs for Lehmann's legacy to continue in women's racing at Cricket Willow too, daughter Jessica topping the girls' nine-under fun run.