Tara Domaschenz is on target to reach a fourth Stawell Women’s Gift final.
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She made Ballarat’s first and main play for a sprint crown at the Stawell Easter Carnival by taking out the opening heat on Saturday.
The seasoned 26-year-old looked comfortable in clocking 14.12 seconds in one of the women’s gift’s hottest heat.
She shaded fellow Ballarat athlete Kate Jones, who also progressed into Monday’s semi-finals as one of the fastest 30 times outside the 12 heats winners.
They accounted for one of the early favourites for the 120m title in Elizabeth Forsyth.
Holly Dobbyn, who won the Stawell Women’s Gift in 2014, as another Ballarat athlete to advance with a composed second in a heat.
She will be one of three Ballarat past Stawell Women’s Gift winners in the semi-finals.
Dobbyn will be joined by Grace O’Dwyer (2015), who was the last one to advance on fastest losing times, and Talia Martin (2016).
The women’s feature lost one of its major drawcards, with last year’s winner Liv Ryan a non-starter owing to a hamstring injury sustained in her last week of training.
Domamschenz (5m) could not have hoped for a better start to her Stawell campaign – looking and feeling strong.
She said she was pleased wiith her start, which allowed to quickly loom up to the rest of field off her mark of 5m.
There has been little between Domaschenz and Jones on occasions this season, with heat reversing their finishing order in the Ballarat Women’s Gift final in February
Jones (8.25m), who was doing her best over the closing stages, said the run had blown away some cobwebs in readiness for another semi-final appearance.
West Australia’s Kiara Reddinguis (3m) ran the fastest heat time of 14.07.
Reddinguis, who bases herself with Ballarat coach and WA ex-pat Peter O’Dwyer when she competes in Victoria, said she was out to make a point at Stawell after missing selection in the heptathlon for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
She produced an A-qualifying time for the Games with a second at the nationals and selection trials, but was overlooked for the team.
Mason Keast will complete Ballarat’s semi-finals presence in Monday’s Stawell Gift after a close second to reigning champion Matt Rizzo in his heat.
He ran a season best 12.387 seconds to be the sixth fastest across all competitors in the Stawell Gift heats.
The 18-year-old was rapt with effort, with this year’s Ararat Gift winners having no hesitation in declaring it his best performance of the season.
Keast (9.75m) said while aware that Rizzo (4.5m) would be charging through the field he had been totally focused on his own effort.
He said he felt the middle markers’ presence, but was determined to progress and knew he could not afford to be distracted.
Ballarat’s Sam Baird was unlucky not to get through to the semi-finals.
He missed the cut as a fastest loser by 0.001 seconds.