Sport
3 January, 2023
Stephens makes his own luck to take men’s 400 title
Sometimes, a piece of luck comes your way, which can then be leveraged into greater achievements. For Bendigo’s Glenn Stephens, that piece of luck came in his 400 m heat on Sunday. “I was very lucky, I was beaten by an inch in my heat after...
Sometimes, a piece of luck comes your way, which can then be leveraged into greater achievements.
For Bendigo’s Glenn Stephens, that piece of luck came in his 400 m heat on Sunday.
“I was very lucky, I was beaten by an inch in my heat after a young kid ran out onto the track, but I was very happy with how I ran,” he said.
Nevertheless, Stephens was able to refocus from his near-miss in the heat with a sensational victory in the men’s 400 m final, taking a convincing win over Akon Chol and Nathan Livitsanos with a time of 48.43.
Chol finished second with a 49.07, while Livitsanos scored third with 49.2.
Some sage advice from coach Nathan Crowley, who had run (and won) the 1600 m Masters/Women’s event earlier in the day, proved to be the difference for Stephens.
“When I looked at the times in the heats, I felt it was going to be close, and I just ran a bit better in the final, with words from the coach, Nathan Crowley, who advised me what to do and it worked,” he said.
“I entered the 300, but after advice from Nathan, I didn’t run that and focused on the 400 instead.”
Stephens was grateful for the work Crowley and his team put him through over winter, saying the program paid off in spades on Sunday.
“There was a lot of focus on this race, but we’ve also done a lot of hard work throughout the winter. Rain, hail and freezing cold, we just kept going and going. Nathan has a very good work ethic, he’s very precise with his coaching, and we have a very supportive group. I get a couple of massages each week, a crack from the chiropractor keeps me going and it’s good for me,” he said.
Perfect conditions greeted runners for the final, which Stephens said was an advantage after doing many training sessions into a headwind.
“The 400 to me is a very technical run. We’d been training a fair bit into a headwind. It doesn’t really affect us as much, although a lot of people don’t like it, but we just go into it regardless,” he said.