CENTRAL Coast speedster Tom Paavola was over the moon on Saturday, surprising himself with a remarkable last-minute surge to the finish line to claim the coveted Temora Golden Gift.A final boost of energy put the 20-year-old ahead of the pack in the final metres of the 120m race to claim a massive $7000 in prize money.Paavola produced a spectacular performance midfield to edge out the fast finishing Lee Clarke from Cardiff and Canberra’s Stephen Sheppard with a steady time of 12.53 seconds.The young dynamo was overcome with joy as his parents Peter and Catherine rushed to the track to celebrate his triumph.Speaking after the race, Paavola was beside himself with excitement, barely able to comprehend his victory.“I didn’t expect to win at all, I’ve just been training real hard and it’s only the start of the season so I’m only just getting into it,” he said.“It’s pretty awesome, I’m stoked.”A highly-successful squad member of the Central Coast Academy of Sport, Paavola said that his track perfomances have significantly improved in recent months, a result of dedicated training.“I’ve just been concentrating on one race at a time and just taking it all as it comes, and I thought I might as well give this another crack,” he said.“I’m normally a 400m runner so I’ve just been trying to build my speed up, and this was a chance for me to do that.“Eventually I’d like to have a crack at the Stawell Gift one day, but I don’t know how far in the future that is for me yet.”The towering trackman insisted his only disappointment was that he could not race during last years Golden Gift washout.“I was running last year but it got washed out so that was a bit disappointing,” he said.Although the massive paycheck was barely in Paavola’s pocket, he was already dreaming of ways to spend his hard-earned cash.“I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the money, a holiday would be nice though,” he laughed.