The Kimberley Gift has been run and won over the weekend, with top honours taken by a Yaru teenager who said running is an escape from stress.
Fifteen-year-old Reshinta Bradshaw from Halls Creek in East Kimberley won the Gift's main event for a second time after crossing the finishing line two metres ahead of her rivals.
"It was good to win, it was a lot more harder to win [than last year] but felt good," she told NITV News.
"I was racing my big sister and we are the same speed... she came second."
Ms Bradshaw said she races in the Kimberley Gift to get her name out there and to be noticed for future running opportunities.
"I do it because it's one of those things that gets me noticed because Broome is a small town and no one really comes here," she said.
Following the weekend's win, Ms Bradshaw will now head to Australia’s most famous footrace, The Stawell Gift, in April.
She will also have the opportunity to compete in the Parkdale Gift which will be held in February 2020.
Event co-founder Tim Mason said the Kimberley Gift is an opportunity to uncover new Indigenous athletes and to provide an opportunity for runners to participate in events that otherwise wouldn't necessarily attract their interest.
“It is also an opportunity to showcase the talents of community but also potentially trying to expose them to different pathways,” he said last week.
The winners of the men’s and women’s 100-metre races on Saturday each received $300 in prize money as well as flights and accommodation to compete in both the Parkdale and Stawell events in Victoria in the new year.
At the inaugural Kimberley Gift in December last year, Ms Bradshaw won the race as a 14-year-old against women twice her age. She said racing against older competitors doesn't bother her.
"I have already played against older people. I don't think about age. I just think about running," she said.
After travelling to Victoria following the first Kimberley Gift, Ms Bradshaw came away with a winin the junior category for women at the Parkdale Gift, and just fewll short of progressing to the semi-finals at the Stawell Gift.
She said she hopes to do better at Stawell next year as that now she knows what to expect, can train appropriately.
Mr Mason told NITV News he had noticed a distinct improvement in the athlete's performance on last year and was confident Ms Bradshaw would make it to the finals at Stawell in 2020.
Sixteen-year-old Colin Skeen flashed by the post first in the men's race.
