DETHRONED Australian sprint champion Matt Davies has marked next week’s Maryborough and Daylesford feature event for his continued comeback to racing.
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The two-time world championships representative has sat out of his game for two years and was stripped of the 2012 Australian 200-metre title for testing positive to a stimulant contained in a substance.
While it is understood the substance was not specifically named as prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Authority, it had the same chemical properties to a banned stimulant.
Davies refused to sign a letter of admission but could not afford to fight the ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. His ban ended on June 30.
Now aged 29, Davies appears to be fighting back the best way he can – by competing.
He will have it tough next week, running off scratch in the Maryborough and Daylesford feature races.
These will be the Queenslander’s first Victorian Athletic League meets this season but he is no stranger to Victorian professional running. Davies was a Stawell Gift finalist in 2009, running third to winner Aaron Stubbs.
Davies will start in heat six at Maryborough’s Princes Park on New Year’s Day.
He will line up against consistent contender Kevin Brittain (5.5m) with Ballarat veteran Rodney Mathews (11.25m) his outmarker.
Dual Maryborough Gift 120m winner Matt Carter, from Mornington, holds the next tightest mark, of 1.25m.
The classy sprinter will be backmarker for the seventh and final Maryborough Gift heat and remains a favoured tip for the sash, despite his narrow start.
The in-form Doug Greenough (8m) is perfectly placed to make his tilt at the title.
Greenough is yet to run a 120m event this season. He was second in the Epping 200m and won last week’s Ararat Gift 70m open sash, neither of which will penalise his position for 120m leading into Maryborough.
Stawell Gift finalist Tim Eschebach (6.75m) will run in the blue for heat one. Eschebach has already shown stellar form this season to place fourth off 7.25m in last month’s Queanbeyan Gift, in New South Wales.
Reigning Bendigo Gift winner Robert Spencer, who also topped Stawell’s gift winners’ gift at Easter, will also be one to watch among confirmed entrants.
Maryborough Highland Society sports secretary Dennis Turner said there were a lot of exciting new runners among the Maryborough Gift and Women’s Necklace 120m fields.
The Daylesford Gift carnival at Cricket Willow will follow next Saturday.
melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au
