SATURDAY’S Keilor Gift will bring a wealth of athletic talent to the western suburbs but is Olympian Tamsyn Lewis who will headline the meet.

The World Champion, triple Commonwealth gold medallist and dual Olympian has entered in the 120m and 400m in what will be her first professional meet of the year.

The 32-year-old is looking forward to her return to the professional circuit especially in the 120m race, which has been named in honour of athlete Billie-Jo Petersen who tragically passed away unexpectedly in November. “I haven’t actually run a professional race all year,” Lewis said. “This is the first one I will be doing and the main reason why I am doing it is because the race is named after Billie-Joe. I am more looking forward to competing in that race just because of her, not for any other reason I don’t really mind how I finish I am just going to go down there and enjoy the day.”

Lewis had great respect for the late Peterson and fondly recalled seeing her at various meets in the past. “I have known her for ages, obviously she was one of those people who when you go to professional races you knew she was always going to be there with her smiling face. She was a lovely girl and always very, very friendly. It’s been pretty hard to deal with actually, I think even people who have run at the race carnivals (are saying) it’s just not the same without her.”

The professional circuit has not fit in with Lewis’ schedule this summer but she has been in training as she looks ahead to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

“There are a lot of amateur races I have been competing in with my club Sandringham on the weekends which have clashed with the professional circuit. “Most of my training partners compete in the professional circuit so they have been competing every weekend so I’m looking forward to actually being down there to compete with them this weekend. After that one (Keilor Gift) I think we are getting in to the business end of the season, we have the Melbourne and Sydney Grand Prix and then the state titles and the nationals in Perth which are the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games.”

Lewis said the Gift meet comes at an ideal time as her training gears towards shorter distances in the coming weeks. “I think next weekend we start to really do some speed work, so it’s good for me to be racing over a shorter distance because you can get your speed up.”

While she is looking to run the 120m in honour of Petersen, the talented athlete’s competitive edge was not entirely stamped out.

“Well yeah, every time you step foot on the track it’s always nice to win,” she said with a laugh.