When lining up for the final of the 70m novice sprint at last Saturday's Rye Gift meeting, Jason Winderlich had one thing on his mind and it wasn't to win the race. It was to beat Essendon assistant fitness coach Joel Hocking. So it was a bonus when the 18-year-old won his first competitive sprint race. Winderlich came first in a time of 7.4 seconds and Hocking - a seasoned track athlete - finished an honourable third.

Winderlich easily won his heat and went into the 70m novice final with the fastest time. Winderlich raced off a 6.5m handicap, as did three other competitors, with the remaining four finalists racing off a 5m handicap. ""I have never done little athletics before, so competing was a first for me. I was racing against Joel Hocking, the new fitness coach assistant who was national champion for long jump as a junior. I just wanted to beat him, I didn't care if I won or not,"" Winderlich laughed.

Winderlich has been training for the Rye Gift as part of the electives pre-season program, however sprinting was not Winderlich's first preference. Each player chose one activity from the five on offer - triathlon, canoeing, aikido, and swimming. ""I wanted to do canoeing, but the fitness staff put me in the sprinting group. I was supposed to do the sprinting group last year but I got a stress fracture in my shin,"" Winderlich said.

Winderlich also made the final of the open 70m sprint but had to withdraw with a sore quad. ""It was disappointing not to go in the open final. I wish I could have run in that, but my quad was a little sore and it wasn't worth risking it. I ran 7.4 seconds to win the novice final and the winner of the open ran 7.6 seconds, so it would have been interesting."" Joel Reynolds, Kepler Bradley, Ricky Dyson and Brent Stanton also competed at the Rye Gift on Saturday.

Things are looking up for Winderlich this pre-season. It is the first pre-season in the last four where he hasn't suffered the affects of stress fractures and he is able to do all training. He has also put on some much needed physical strength. Since arriving at the club at the end of 2002, he has put on seven kilograms. ""Even though I didn't get to do much pre-season last year due to stress fractures, it was still a good warm up for this pre-season because I knew what to expect.

""I don't feel as much pressure on me this season. When you get drafted you put pressure on yourself and think you have to play senior footy. I think that sort of got in the way last year, rather than just focusing on improving each week and seeing what happens. I am just enjoying being able to do every session at the moment,"" Winderlich said.