Sport
6 January, 2026
White-hot Drew wins 400 m
Fresh off winning the Seymour Gift just over a fort-night prior, Kylee Drew started 2026 the way she ended 2025, victorious in the 400 m women’s final.
After predominately focusing on the 400 m for several seasons, Drew’s Seymour Gift triumph was a crowning moment in her gradual transition to more shorter distance events. Despite that, Drew continues to be a prolific longer-distance sprinter.
With the event going straight to the deciding final after originally being scheduled to have two qualifying heats, Drew lined up near the back alongside former Maryborough Gift winner Cassandra Wang and Mia Nardelli.
Drew took full advantage of the inside line and a great reaction time to the starting gun to get the jump on Wang and Nardelli and sprinting past Emily Fiedler at the end of the first bend.
After closing the gap to the frontrunners on the back straight, Drew still had a lot of work to catch Kim McDonough after passing Annie Sutherland with 100 m to go.
With just 10 m to go, Drew caught McDonough to give her training squad, Team Ireland, their second win of the day after David Haigh won the 800 m open final.
Drew said she delighted to keep her recent winning ways going with another superb performance.
“It’s pretty good, I’ve had a win already this year at Seymour which was just the best feeling ever especially with the support of my squad as well,” she said.
“I haven’t been running a lot of 400 m and stuff so I knew it was going to be hard, but it being a straight final I thought I would just have a really good crack at it.”