Teenage winner of Australia's oldest foot race fined for "inconsistent" form

Australia' s oldest and richest sprint race, the Stawell Gift, has been plunged into controversy, with the youngest ever winner of the women' s race penalized for "inconsistent" running form.

Talia Martin, a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Victoria, stormed to an unexpected victory in the women' s Gift on Monday, collecting the 30,000 U.S. dollar winner's cheque.

However, the teenager had earlier been hauled before race officials after her astounding semi-final run and fined 1,500 U.S. dollars for dramatic, unexplained improvement based on her lead-up form.

The 120-meter Stawell Gift is a handicap race, meaning competitors run a shorter or longer distance depending on their past results.

Martin was running with a slight head start, off the 13-meter mark, and finished in a time of 13.77 seconds in the final - just ahead of Tierra Exum, the twin sister of NBA rising star Dante Exum.

Chief Steward of the Victorian Athletic League (VAL), Brian Marantelli, said Martin' s stark improvement from her last run 12 days earlier in the Ararat Gift had led to suspicions that she had run poorly on purpose to gain an unfair advantage with her handicap.

"When she got here, she ran seven meters quicker than in Ararat - which is more than most runners improve in a lifetime," Marantelli said in comments published on Tuesday.

"In our sport that is called improvement of extreme range. Extreme range stops at four meters, so she was well off the chart for improvement in a short space of time."

"I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to work out what happened."

Martin' s stable appealed the severity of the punishment, explaining to stewards that the youngster had been dealing with a personal issue a fortnight ago which may have detrimentally affected her time.

"From (the) Ararat Gift I didn't run my best, it was kind of when my aunty Barb died so I was really emotional and I just had to get past that and it obviously shook me up a bit," Martin said during her acceptance speech.

But the stewards did not accept the excuse.

Martin' s coach, father Peter O' Dwyer, is expected to be quizzed further by VAL regarding the sprinter's questionable lead-up performance. But he has already told reporters that he will not appeal the fine.

Marantelli said the Gift, one of the world's most prestigious foot races that has been held for all but four years since 1878, had been brought into disrepute by Martin's conduct.

"I would say it definitely does (damage confidence in the race and the result) - no doubt," he said.

Marantelli said VAL would review the issue at the end of the year, and likely implement new "rules and regulations" designed to make it harder for runners to exploit the system. Endit