At 500m to go, Greg Hilson tried to take the lead, but Stewart made a gutsy last minute dash to hold off Hilson and win the Phil Noden-sponsored 6.5km event as Ben Goode fought on to be third.

It was a great run by the veteran on the course at Keith Noden’s property as he improved on his previous 6.5km time by an impressive 44 seconds.

Stewart’s athletics career included back-to-back BAC championships and impressive wins on the Victorian Athletics League circuit.

A high was victory in the prestigious Herb Hedemann at Stawell.

In Sunday’s race, Stewart was first in the veterans category from Hilson and Paul Bennett.

Goode won the the open category ahead of Adam Parker and Matt Sullivan.

The duel for fastest time honours was won by Jacob Nolan in 22.49 from Parker and Goode.

Nolan also took out the under-23 category followed by Reza Azimi and Lachlan Perdon.

Ingrid Douglas won the women’s category from Rhonda Schultz and Carol Stewart.

It was an exciting race in the junior 1km event as Baxter Parker won narrowly from Daniel Noden and Harper-Lee Basten.

Baxter Parker celebrated his third win this season as Daniel Noden showed he will be a runner to watch.