Former Gunnedah-based athlete Jasper Thomas had a homecoming of sorts on Friday June 20, as he made a guest appearance at Donnelly Fields during a ZooM Athletics Group session.

Gunnedah coach and mentor Andrew Frend arranged for Jasper and current Gunnedah-based teen athlete Ethan Chavula to face off in a 100m sprint race, as part of the occasion.

After the gathering of young athletes went through their stretches, routines and activities, Jasper and Ethan prepared carefully for their race while Andrew carefully measured the distance.

Ethan had a nine-metre head start on Jasper due to a handicap, yet the latter sneaked home narrowly in a time of 11.28 seconds compared to Ethan’s 11.58.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to catch him in the end,” Jasper said afterwards.

Having been a member of the Gunnedah-based ZooM Athletics Group until about six years ago, Jasper has since moved to Newcastle while doing his training at Maitland as part of a sprint squad coached by Dan Burgess.

During the Easter long weekend, Jasper placed second in the 120m handicap race at the Stawell Gift.

The next major event in Jasper’s sights is the Australian Short Track Athletics Championships in January 2026, after this 60m event made its debut at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre in January of this year.

Olympians Lachlan Kennedy and Ella Connolly took out the title, and are expected to line up to defend the title.

As for his visit to Gunnedah, Jasper said it was great to see “such a solid turnout” at the athletics session.

“I don’t think there were this many when I was doing it,” he said.

“The fact that I could leave and come back and see that there’s a whole new group of people at that age that are still keen on it, it’s just great to see.

“And hopefully they carry it through into their high school years and they don’t stop doing it.”

Jasper said there were long-term and life-long skills that the youngsters could learn, not just from an athletic point of view.

“You get to work. You get to have fun with your friends. You get to learn about enthusiasm, the way it goes up and down week-to-week,” he said.

“You’ve always got a support system built – a big one in that – which is great.”

Jasper said there was a diverse range of runners, which was great in terms of teamwork building.

Andrew Frend, Ethan Chavula and Jasper Thomas.

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