Athletes find winning touch at beloved community running festival

The zippy athlete flew through the course with a time of 34:19.773 to beat Anthony Meek and Jordan McGarry.

He said it was a strong run and was pleased to be able to come out on top.

"Port Fairy's nice and flat to run so it's a really good course and I really enjoyed it," he said.

"I'm really pleased with how it went. It was a nice run."

Coates, who has been racing competitively for several years, says it is a strong step in the right direction for him after dedicating himself to training.

"I've been running competitively for about two, three years and always been into it," he said.

"I've been running a lot more and taken it a bit more seriously. I've really ramped it up over the last few years so it's good.

"I'm running basically every day at the moment, so I'm getting in lots of kilometres into my legs at the moment."

Coates said he had eyes on running in various events throughout the year, including the Dragon Mile across Easter in Bendigo and then on to Ballarat and potentially Melbourne later on in 2024.

A former Koroit local now living in Melbourne, meanwhile, has made it back-to-back wins in the Port Fairy Marathon's 10km event after recovering from a serious injury.

Elizabeth Winter, who won the same event in 2023, was the first female across the finish line despite only recently recovering from a knee injury late last year.

The experienced runner, competing as a semi-pro athlete, shook off any concerns with the powerful run.

"It was really good (to win again), it's basically my first run since my knee issue so it was nice to get back out there," she said.

"I haven't been able to run much the past few months with my injury so it was nice to build up and get this one done but it was a little bit sore throughout the run."

In the remaining categories across the morning, Richard Gleisner won the 5km event ahead of Peter Charlton and Manaia Bremner while talented youngster Charlotte Staaks from Ilowa won the female category ahead of Rylee Foreman and Makayla Lowther.

In the 2.5km All Abilities event, Occy Hayes got the win ahead of Jaxon Leishman and Lenny Jansz while Miranda Jansz, Alaska Bremner and Eva Phan rounded out the podium in the female section.