Monday, 22 April 2019:
Melbourne sprinters Alexia Loizou and Sophia Fighera are pretty much inseparable off the track.
Not much separates the training partners and best friends on the track either.
It was the 21-year-old Loizou who took the honours on Monday at Central Park, winning the women's Stawell Gift in 13.58 seconds, a mere 0.08 ahead of second-placed Fighera.
The pair were born just six days apart, they boast identical 100m PBs of 12.06 and earlier this year finished first and second in the 400m at the Victorian titles, with Fighera taking the honours on that occasion.
"We are rivals on the track, but it's never like that off track," Loizou, who had a handicap of 5.75m, said.
"It's always super close and we never let any competition affect our friendship which is so special."
The $40,000 first prize will come in very handy for the nursing student.
"I have a lot of dreams, I'm aspiring to be a nurse and this will really help with that," she said.
"I want to pay off my loan, I have a car loan, it sounds so boring but definitely the car loan and then on to more exciting things I guess."
Loizou also has big dreams in athletics, although that certainly wasn't the case when she was first pushed into the sport by her mother as a 10-year-old.
"I was so stubborn and just not interested," she said.
"I'd run in my Blundstones and Driza-Bone jacket.
"I just didn't want a bar of it.
"But then I came back a few years later and thought this is kind of cool, I think I could do this."
Bree Masters was third in 13.88.
Twelve-time Australian 400m hurdles champion Lauren Wells was unluckily eliminated in the Gift semis when she was penalised one metre for a false start.
After the restart she flew home to finish a narrow second behind Hana Basic.
But Wells' day ended well when she claimed victory in the 200m Jack Donaldson Handicap, holding off the challenge from four male runners.
