Boden, who has made the final in four consecutive years, ended her run of hard luck to collect the $4000 winner's cheque.

But the 20-year-old was made to work hard for the victory, edging past training partner Catherine Wild-Taylor in the final strides.

Australia's fastest woman this year, Melissa Breen, made it a trifecta for the Matt Beckenham-trained group Fit4Fun, finishing strongly from the backmark.

In the Queanbeyan Gift feature race, Brendan Matthews continued the locally-trained group's success, easily accounting for his opposition from the generous handicap of 9.5m.

In horrendous weather conditions, Matthews, who won the 2008 Temora Gift, flew home to go one better than last year's second.

Newcastle's Liam Gander and Victoria's Matt Hargreaves took out the minor placings.

But the day belonged to Boden, the perennial bridesmaid breaking through to win her adopted home town Gift.

''To be here for the fourth year in a row the fourth final in a row it's nice to finally get the win. There have been a couple of seconds and then the torn hamstring in the final, so it's just nice to see results when you have done so much training for something.''

Boden said her training had been fantastic, peaking with a personal best in the 100m a fortnight ago.

Despite the rain and wind, Boden said the conditions helped her take the prize.

''To be honest, I was saying bring down the rain, bring on the wind, because I have run PBs in the wind and rain before, it really doesn't bother me,'' she said. ''I know for the front markers they really like a tail wind, so I was hoping the conditions would be in my favour and they were.''

Beckenham was thrilled after a successful day at Queanbeyan Park, where his runners won the men's and women's Queanbeyan Gift, as well as the men's and women's backmarkers handicap. The team took home more than $15,000 of the available $30,000 on offer for the carnival.

Beckenham, who competed in the 400m hurdles at the Sydney Olympics, said it had been the perfect day.

''We've been planning on this for pretty much 12 months now to try and get some good results, so to achieve it they have made me very proud,'' Beckenham said.

''It's something I'd always loved to have won as an athlete, but now I can say I have coached a winner in both the men's and women's it's a great feeling, almost as good as winning it.''