IPSWICH Athletics club captain, Jude Thomas, is continuing to build momentum in his drive for future Olympic selection.
Competing in the recent Beachside Gift in Mentone he finished a strong third just behind Australian Olympic and World Championships representative, Stewart McSweyn.
It was Jude’s first handicapped race and first time over the 3200m distance on grass.
McSweyn passed Jude with 300m to go and created a gap, but Jude chased hard to almost catch one of the country’s top middle distance runners, falling short by 0.13 of a second. Jude started off a 105 metre handicap ahead of McSweyn who was on scratch.Logan Janetski won the race making full use of his 220 metre plus handicap.
Jude’s current 3000 metre personal best sits at 7:47.26.
