23 May 2011 | Tennis Queensland

On the early afternoon of May 21st 2011, 16 of Queensland’s fastest Mascots lined up for the 100m dash at Doomben Race Course.

Racing for charity, the favourite for the race, was Guido Gecko starting off scratch.  As the horn sounded, Terry the Tennis Ball exploded to the lead reminiscent of a 1988 Ben Johnson. With his massive foam shoes and limited arm movement, there was definitely no performance enhancement assisting Tennis Queensland’s favourite Mascot. 

Many in the crowd cheered aloud to see Terry to victory, through the wet Doomben track wasn’t assisting any of the mascots.

As Terry passed the 50m mark (topping 43.7km/h), the Heart Foundation Heart really started pumping.  MuffinMan from Muffinbreak looked as if he had one too many chocolate chips and slipped back in the field. Salmo the Salmon was really swimming upstream and Burnie Blaze started to smoke.

With 2m to go, Terry’s massive legs (especially calves) looked the goods, however Tuki The Little Athletics mascot (in sprint shoes) stormed to the lead edging out Terry to take the win (breaking the hearts of Terry supporters).

Terry has vowed to be back next year faster than ever.

Click here for the final 50m of the race……(please be patient).