Lucy Zotti celebrates as she crosses the line to win the 800m women’s event at the 2025 Seymour Club Gift, her first after a run of six second-place finishes last season. Photo: jamesonsphotography.
For all the success that was had by everyone involved with the Seymour Running Club and Kelfit stable on Saturday at the 2025 Seymour Club Gift, no-one was smiling wider than Lucy Zotti.
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Seven times last season Zotti made it to the final at a Victorian Athletic League event — six times she finished second, and once third.
But the heartbreak she experienced in the 2024-25 campaign was what made her triumphant 400m and 800m double on Saturday, in front of an adoring home crowd, all the more sweet.
“I actually haven't thought just yet, I’m going to have to think about my words here,” a speechless Zotti said with a laugh following the presentation of her 400m winner’s sash.
“It feels like a bit of a relief, to be honest with you.
“The 800 was certainly a relief, but the 400 definitely felt like I earned that one.
“It was a much tougher race, and to cross the line first, I was super, super pumped, especially after having already run two races, and with the competition probably being a little bit tougher in the four, I was super stoked to get the win.
“I probably, yeah, I wasn't expecting it after the eight, I thought I was done for, but I found another gear and made it happen, which I was so happy with.”
There was hardly a single person at Kings Park — Seymour local or otherwise — that wasn’t left beaming shortly before 2pm, as Zotti finally broke her drought of wins in the 800m women’s final.
It was a pretty dominant showing, too, with Zotti, running off a handicap of 52m and with four athletes ahead of her, timing her run to perfection to mow down the leader on the final bend, before powering to the line nearly two seconds ahead of her nearest rival.
As far as victories go, they don’t get much more stirring than that given how close and how often she had been on the cusp of a win last season, but Zotti had saved her best for last.
With the monkey — which had an extremely strong grip — finally off the back, Zotti was free, and backed up her 800m victory with an ominous showing in the 400m heats, defeating 2023 women’s Stawell Gift winner and Australian representative Bella Pasquali, as well as Olympian Kendra Hubbard, to qualify with the fastest time of 55.184 seconds.
Lucy Zotti makes it a double at the 2025 Seymour Club Gift, winning the 400m women's final in a gritty performance. Photo: jamesonsphotography.
Lining up off the same mark of 29m in the 400m final, wearing the green singlet, Zotti’s race looked to have got off to a disastrous start from an outsider’s perspective.
Swallowed up by the backmarker Clea Clifford and with Hubbard on her heels, her race looked to be done at the 300m mark as she slipped backwards into the pack.
But despite finding herself trapped in the inside lane, Zotti elbowed her way through an escape route, forcing her way past the pack four-wide on the outside with 70 metres to go, hunting down a rapidly tiring Clifford to hit the front and kick clear to win by over a second.
“Unfortunately, that is how a lot of my 400’s pan out, being a 400 to 800 metre runner,” she said.
“I often will get caught up by the field pretty early, but luckily my last 150 metres is probably the strongest of my race, so I like to use that to my advantage, but they definitely caught me earlier than I was expecting.
“Then I probably got boxed in a little bit, so I had to make the decision, do I find a gap or do I try and go wide?
“I felt like my legs still had a bit left in them, so I was like, let's take the chance and go wide.
“And luckily, the crowd just sort of got around me and literally got me home.”
Kings Park may as well have been the MCG on grand final day it was that loud as Zotti stormed towards her second sash, with the home support not lost on the middle-distance star.
“Usually when you're running, you just shut everything off and you can't hear and your body just sort of takes control,” she said.
“But in this situation, all you could hear was the crowd getting behind you, and it's like nothing else.
“I think our Seymour community again really pulled through today, they just lifted you up pretty much, so it was pretty special, I’ve never experienced anything like it before.”
While the raucous home crowd had provided plenty of support throughout the day, it was in a quieter moment after her two trips to the top step that Zotti reflected on the enormity of her achievement.
To overcome the ‘almosts’ of last season, and to do so twice on the same day, in front of friends and family at her home gift, was more than she could have imagined.
“I know ‘Kel’ (Kelvin Lubeck) had faith in me to pull through, but just having a look at the field, I wasn't overly confident,” she said.
“So, the result today has exceeded my expectations.
“For it to happen today is super special after all those seconds, in front of the home crowd, it just made it 10 times better.”
